AFTER a 33-year stint in the judiciary, A.M. Ahmadi must have had no regrets whatsover when he retired as the chief justice of India on March 21. But he does have a nagging worry about the system, which, he says, has become an 'expediency', and the deteriorating rule of law. "Things have been allowed to drift. And what could have been sorted out with a little imagination now demands Herculean efforts." In the post-Nehru era, the faith the founding fathers placed in parliamentary democracy has been shaken by its manner of functioning.