3. Yours arbitrarily

I came across two interesting news items in the first page of the Hindu of 23rd April 2017. The first item under the headline "CJ pitches for zero govt. role in arbitration process'  reported the speech of Mr. J.S.Khehar, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court pleading that the government should keep away from  the arbitration process to help promote the confidence of the business community in international arbitration available in India. You can read the full report here.

Right below this news report is another with a screaming headline 'Govt. plea against military pay upgrade sparks unease.' This news is about the govt. filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the judgement of Armed Forces Tribunal.

Here we have the CJI advising the govt. to keep away from arbitration. Just below this news is the news about the govt. unwilling to accept the verdict of a tribunal!

I am aware that there can be a technical difference between an arbitration setup and a tribunal. But both are arrangements for settling disputes between two parties through the intervention of a third party. 

So I see the government's defiance against the tribunal verdict as an unwillingness to accept the award of a mediator. Constitutionally, the government has the right to appeal against the tribunal's verdict. But the attitude of the government is intriguing. It is 'Either I win or you lose!.' Given this attitude of the govt, can we expect it to keep away from an arbitration process?

I thus find the juxtaposition of the two reports in the newspaper as a representation of irony.

Tailpiece: in case you are intrigued by the title of this post, some of the meanings of arbitrary are:
1) subject to individual will or judgement without restriction
2) contingent solely upon one's discretion
3) having unlimited power
4) uncontrolled or unrestricted by law
5) despotic, tyrannical
6) unreasonable, capricious, unsupported (by logic or rationale)