An old man with Parkinson’s
Needs a sipper and straw
Why should this simple request
Get entangled in a lot of law?
But amid darkness all around
It became clear as a sunny day
That even this will be contested
Thanks to that thing called NIA
From those trained to persecute
Can one get compassion & love?
Foot soldiers perform their duties
As per orders received from above
Age or health doesn’t matter
Nor gravity of the alleged crime
Prosecutors are programmed
To hem and haw and seek time
For information ready at hand
The pleader a fortnight seeks
And the judge is such a liberal
That he grants him three weeks!
On the adjourned date they say
“We took neither sipper nor straw”
And everyone seems satisfied
At the triumph of Rule of Law!
The Lady of Justice is Blindfolded
Maybe that’s why she can’t see
But surely she can hear the cries
Of those who cry for Liberty..
(Raju Z Moray is an advocate who practices law in the Bombay High Court when not puncturing bloated egos. He is the creator of ‘Gobble D. Gook’, his alter-ego, who figured in the ‘Court Jester’ columns of ‘The Lawyers’.)