Mob lynchings represent complete failure of law: ex-CJI

Former Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Wednesday said incidents of mob lynching represented a complete failure of the rule of law, which is protected by an independent judiciary.

“People being killed daily by mob lynching is complete failure of the Rule of Law," Thakur said at a function to release a book The Wheel of Justice authored by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.

Thakur underscored that an independent judiciary was required for the survival of democracy and protection of the rule of law.

He said a judiciary that was subjugated to the powers that be and a judiciary that measured up to some political ideology will not be able to uphold the rule of law.

Referring to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, Thakur recalled that even Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to be caught alive, also got fair justice.

"We could have left him to be lynched on the streets of Mumbai... but our heads would have hung in shame," he said.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh released the book in the presence of Thakur, Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri and a host of luminaries from the field of law that included senior judges and lawyers.