Mr Justice Katju
I am a lawyer hailing from Bihar and practicing in Delhi High Court, Supreme Court of India. I have been closely following your musings earlier in the courts now on social media. I am piqued to write this open letter in response to your offer to Pakistan to take Bihar alongwith Kashmir as a package deal. Sir, you have not only undermined the sovereignty of our nation but also committed the offense of Sedition attracting punishment. May I reproduce the Section of IPC dealing with Sedition for your ready reference :
“124. A . Sedition. Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise , brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added or with imprisonment which may extent to three years, to which fine may be added or with fine.”
Sir, having born with a silver spoon in your mouth as your grandfather was one of the leading lawyers of country, your father and uncle being High Court judges, you got elevated to High Court initially and then to Supreme Court. We know your lineage of Kashmiri Pandits settled in green pastures of Central India after leaving your motherland as your forefathers choose to run away from their motherland. We Biharis never do so, ask the people who migrated to Caribbean, South Africa centuries ago, they still maintain ties with motherland. Ask any Bihari around Delhi, he still has ties with his motherland unlike your family.
I have occasions (sic) to appear in your court and see your gimmicks which initially I respected as a lawyer but subsequently got to know your court craft and realized that your behavior as a judge in court room was highly infected with self proclamation besides being motivated. As a judge of High Court and Supreme Court you selectively hauled up an ordinary lawyer and showed utmost respect and recognition to the heavy weights. This shows your cleaver mindset.
You were a standing counsel for the Income Tax Department in Allahabad High Court and got elevated to a High Court Judge where your uncle and father were earlier judges. Being the son of a Judge it was a cake walk for you. You never criticized or uttered a single word about the dominance of few families in Allahabad High Court till you were elevated to the Supreme Court as a Judge. Once elevated to Supreme Court, you started feeling the rot of Allahabad High Court and made observations of “Uncle judges Court”. Please do not forget your family is also a prime contributor of this rotting process at Allahabad High Court; may be your family initiated the process of rotting as your uncle, father were High Judges at Allahabad High Court paving your way of becoming a judge ultimately.
Till you served at Supreme Court you did not utter anything against the Collegiums system of elevation of judges to High Court. Where was your straight forwardness? After your retirement from Supreme Court, you managed the seat of Chairperson of Press Council of India during the UPA regime and published reports against Bihar, Gujarat, and West Bengal which were not being ruled by Congress. With the change of the ruling party at center, you started criticizing UPA in a desperate attempt to drift towards and get some benefits from ruling NDA.
I have seen you in several parties hosted by various political leaders, but your conduct was visible to all except you hence you could not succeed in wooing the NDA leaders for any favour. You became more desperate through time and criticized Justice J. Chelameswar , a sitting Judge of Supreme Court again with the oblique motive of attracting the attention. During your entire regime of judgeship, you were not critical about the elevation of judges to High Court and Supreme Court but and happily exploited the said process for your benefit . The stand of Justice Chemlashwar is incomparable, as a sitting judge of Supreme Court he has the guts to open up his mouth and express his dissent, which you never did during your tenure as judge and made selective comments after taking your share of pie. You have throughout remained lobbying, hobnobbing for some plump post desperately and now your frustration is at peak.
You are educated in Philosophy and you claim to have written books on India Philosophy, but your miserably failed to show your wisdom of Indian Philosophy as you are in the stage of “Sanyasa” but attending late night parties, seminars to attract the attention so that you are granted some favours.
Sir, while evaluating yourself proclaimed brilliance, I have not come across any reported landmark judgment during your practice at Allahabad High Court as a lawyer, a parameter through which we evaluate and weigh the caliber of a legal brain. Your judgments as a High Court and Supreme Court Judge only show some superficial and rudimentary knowledge of law which lack depth. One remarkable thing I have noticed in all your judgments that you mostly cited and discussed cases decided during 1950, 1970, 1990’s in your judgments which shows that you have stopped reading the law journals once you became a judge and you have been cleverly wording your judgments with some religious and social concepts which look more like a newspaper article than a well crafted judgment which most of the Judges of High Court and all judges of Supreme Court excel.
Please do not forget that you had a tag which took you to that height otherwise you are physically tall but your thoughts are dwarfed to the extent of being mean, parochial and motivated. You also lack the guts to face the criticism and immediately go on the back foot once you are faced with a strong opposition. Your statement to handover Bihar to Pakistan from which you have detracted now shows the sickness of your mind. You have no right to insult fellow countrymen and claim that you were joking. Please be within the limits of civilized behavior. You consider yourself to be superior human being and make unsolicited comments on others. Please do not forget that your ancestors were responsible for the initiation of process of exodus of the Kashmiri Pundits’ which became acute in 1990 leading to a complete swiping of the community from Kashmir Valley, now you want Bihar to be gifted to Pakistan alongwith Kashmir. If you have guts, please announce a comeback of all Kashmiri Pundits’ to Kashmir valley under your leadership and comment on the extremist leaders of Kashmir. Please do not forget that in your desperate bid to attract the attention, you have made an anti national statement and be ready to face the consequences. I challenge you to withstand with your statement about Bihar and face the consequences instead of retracting from the statement of shrewd arrangement of humor. Biharis can prove to be more humorous with you.
If you know Indian history properly, which you claim, I suppose you are aware that Bihar is a land where first Monarchy was founded, followed by first democracy of the world and people of Bihar are still proud to claim that the freedom movement started from Champaran. You have ill intentions of handing over Bihar to Pakistan? I bet you , if given an opportunity, we Biharis will reclaim Ghulam Kashmir from Pakistan and extricate your motherland for you which we find you are incapable to do. How can you imagine such anti national thing is a matter of great concern. Are you out to break India?
As a practicing lawyer we render advice; I advice you free of cost to desist from indulging in such desperate attempts to draw the attraction of people towards you otherwise Biharis will make your life hell as you have no immunity now after retirement as a judge.
Regards
Umesh Sharma
Advocate
