After Salman Khan acquittal, Kirti Azad asks if deer was driving

Actor Salman Khan’s acquittal in a hit-and-run road accident case found its way into a Lok Sabha discussion with one MP wondering if a deer was driving the vehicle.

“We see cases in courts nowadays where a man goes to jail for killing a deer but gets acquitted for crushing a man. This is the situation in our judicial system,” BJP MP from Darbhanga Kirti Azad said,

Adding that he was “not talking ill of anyone” Azad said, “I am not talking ill of a judge, but I am talking of those judgments. A poor man died... there’s no word about him. It is not even known yet whether that deer was driving that vehicle.”

font-size: 18px; line-height: 28.8px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He then added there was a need to improve the judicial system and bring in efficiency. “It is said that you are a good lawyer if you know the law...but you are a great lawyer if you know the judge,” Azad said, suggesting the need to have an Indian Judicial Service on the lines of IAS and IPS.

Azad was speaking during a discussion on a legislation that seeks to provide for speedy disposal of high-value commercial disputes by setting up dedicated commercial courts for adjudicating commercial disputes. The Lok Sabha later passed the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill 2015 with a voice vote.

Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut said, “The judicial system is such that Salman Khan has been acquitted after 12 years, but the question is that who is responsible for those who died in that incident that happened that night. Who did that... nobody searched for him... After exonerating Salman Khan, those who died were left just like that...the system should not be such. When justice is delivered, it should be the job of the judiciary, in addition to the police department, to search for the real culprits. There is a need to bring this change into the system.”