Frivolous cases are certainly a bane for the judiciary. However, what is frivolous for one may not be frivolous for another. Thus, the definition of the word varies from person to person. A single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court has dismissed a case terming it “frivolous”. The petitioner had filed the case against the practice of having Prime Minister Narendra Modi's picture on the Covid vaccination certificates. He pointed out that such a practice was not followed anywhere and it amounted to self-glorification.
While dismissing the case with a cost of Rs 1 lakh, the judge waxed eloquent on the democratic practices and justified the certificate as Modi was an elected Prime Minister. He forgot that in a democracy, the daridra narayana, a term used for the hoi polloi by Swami Vivekananda, is more important than any elected official. Self-glorification at the cost of the exchequer is as unacceptable as it is unethical. On this count alone, the practice of loading all vaccination certificates with his picture should have been declared against the tenets of equality. In the order of precedence, it is the President whose picture should have been there, if at all there was a need for it. The state governments and individuals also pay for the vaccinations. If the PM has a claim to have his picture on the certificates, the chief ministers, too, have a similar claim. Having said this, one must also accept the fact that the courts cannot interfere in all government matters. The certificates only expose Modi as a vainglorious, publicity-conscious person. In other words, he risks becoming a laughing stock. The court could have dismissed the case as unworthy of hearing in detail.
What rankles the democratically inclined is the severity with which the petitioner was dealt with. He has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh, whereas the Supreme Court had imposed a fine of only Re 1 on lawyer Prashant Bhushan in a far more serious case. Recently, the Chief Justice of India lamented the death of investigative journalism in the country. One of the main reasons for it is the illiberal attitude of the courts which come down heavily on those who question like the petitioner in Kerala.
