@the_news_21
Mumbai: With less than three months to go before he retires on August 26, Chief Justice of India, N. V. Ramana, popularly known as ‘the Peoples Judge’, has continued, nevertheless, relentlessly with his battle against the incompetent, corrupt and unjust in every sphere, including in the judiciary…
A bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana remarked that “the Government has started maligning Judges. It is unfortunate.” He made the comment while hearing petitions filed by the Chhattisgarh government and an activist challenging the State High Court’s decision to quash a First Information Report (FIR) against a former IAS officer in a disproportionate assets case.
The CJI-led Bench made the comment against the Chhattisgarh Government on hearing a plea challenging its High Court’s decision in an assets case against a former IAS officer. “Don’t generalize people like that. Tomorrow, when the Government changes and another Government comes then lakhs will become thousands…,” the CJI said. “Whatever fight you may take, that is alright. But do not try to malign the Courts.” the Bench said.
But at the same time, the CJI, who does not pull back his punches, at a recent meeting of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers, attended also by many political stalwarts as well as Judges from the Supreme Court, did not mince his words. He came down heavily on the ‘deliberate inactions of Governments’ in remedying the fractured legal system and allowing the rot to persist. Pune-based lawyer, Amit Kumar Bhowmik (75), has petitioned the CJI and the Prime Minister, drawing inferences on the apparently splintered legal system…
In his letter/petition to the CJI, he had also detailed some of the activities of the land mafia rampaging in the Maval Taluka in Pune District (Maharashtra), in connivance with the police, revenue officials and bent members of the judiciary. The role of concerned lawyers cannot be overlooked. But everything was being swept under the bureaucratic carpet.
On January 13, 2010. Satish Shetty was murdered for taking up cudgels against powerful land-barons, under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Satish was reportedly probing into the alleged misdoings of a huge Syndicate, running into a scam of several thousand crores of rupees. Obviously, they had political backing. On January 13, 2010, Satish had gone in the early morning to fetch the newspaper, near his house at Talegaon Dabhade, Maval Taluka. His assailants were waiting for him. Satish was stabbed multiple times and he later succumbed to his injuries.
It so happened that Advocate Bhowmik, was appearing for an Intervener, who was also a victim of the land mafia, in PIL No: 59 of 2008 before Hon’ble Justice F.I. Rebello in the Bombay High Court on January 14, 2010. He tabled the newspapers reports of Satish Shetty’s murder. Hon’ble Justice Rebello took the News Paper report, which appeared in the Times of India, suo motu as a Writ Petition:
“While hearing the Public Interest Litigation No.59 of 2008 our attention has been invited to the Newspaper items appearing in various Newspapers circulated in Mumbai on the attack on the social activist Shri Satish Shetty which has resulted in his death. The Newspaper reports indicate that late Shri Satish Shetty by use of the Right to Information Act has unmasked various irregularities in the matter of Government lands and other incidents. This comes immediately after another newspaper item which appeared some days back which disclosed an attack on another social activist in the City of Mumbai, who are petitioners before this Court in the petition filed by City-space in the matter of S.R.A. Schemes on land reserved for play ground and R.G. Areas.
Such incidents, in our opinion, are to dissuade public spirited citizens and other social activities from approaching this Court to highlight the irregularities and illegalities. This Court, therefore, cannot close its eyes to such an incident. Considering the newspaper item in the Times of India of today, this Court takes Suo Motu notice of the same, specially of the murder of late Shri Satish Shetty.
We, therefore, direct the State Government as also the Director General of Police to file an affidavit in this Court as to what steps have been taken to investigate both the matters and further what steps they propose to take in the matter of threat perception to other activities who have filed petitions before this Court. Affidavit to be filed within one week from today. Office to treat the news item in the Times of India of today i.e., 14th February, 2010 as Suo Motu Petition and register the same as Suo Motu and place the same on-board next week.”
In this context it is important to note that some years ago, an upright IAS officer, who was Divisional Commissioner of Pune, had summarily suspended over 200 Tehsildars and Talathi’s who had fudged revenue records,7/12 extracts, sale deeds et al, to deprive widows and other impoverished;distraught family members and legitimate heirs of their rights to the property of the diseased.The public lauded him for his audacious action.But, the very next day the then Revenue Minister of Maharashtra transferred him to an obscure post! This scrupulously honest and daring IAS officer was transferred 22 times in his career spanning 25 years!
Since the last 12 years, Satish’s younger brother, Sandeep, and his well -wishers have run a sordidly painful and frustrating gauntlet, knocking, repeatedly, on the doors of the Courts and the Establishment, but in vain. Satish’s murder remains unsolved…
While it may hold true that Governments, especially of late, have sometimes targeted the Courts unfairly, as the CJI noted, it is, however, also factual that judicial officers, unlike Caesar’s wife, are not above suspicion! To declare that corruption is not prevalent in the Courts and is as dangerously uncontrollable as a viral epidemic, would be akin to taking an ostrich-like stance and donning on rose-tinted glasses. CJI Justice Ramana has also urged that the Courts be litigant- friendly, which Bhowmik fears, has largely fallen on the deaf ears of judicial officers; high and low.
The Maval Taluka of Pune District is of great historical significance. This was where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the great Maratha warrior, rallied his ‘mavalis’. It was his bastion. It was here that the Marathas gave the British a run for their money. For the first -and only time -since the British invaded India, they were forced to return the territories in the region conquered and plundered by them.
The Treaty of Vadgaon was signed on January 13, 1779.The compact was entered into after the First Maratha War in India (1775–82), marking the end of British efforts to intervene in Maratha affairs by making Raghunath Rao ‘peshwa’ (the nominal leader of the Maratha Confederacy), or at least, the Regent for his infant great-nephew.
The Treaty was concluded after a British expedition, commanded by Col. William Cockburn and controlled by Col. John Carnac, was surrounded by Maratha forces at Vadgaon, 23 miles (37 km) from Pune and forced to come to terms.
The terms included the return of all British annexations of Maratha territory since 1773, including Salsette Island; the halting of a British force marching from Bengal; and a share of the revenues from the district of Broach (Bharuch) for the Maratha chief, Scindia. The terms were disavowed by the British authorities at Bengal, and the First Maratha War dragged on until 1782, ending with the British abandonment of Raghunath and retention of Salsette.
Now, alas! Maval has become a hot-bed for the land mafia, which is running amok, with the tacit- or direct- collusion of the police, bureaucrats, Government officials like the ‘Talathis’, and, sadly enough, crooked judicial officers.
On March 22, last year, the Supreme Court rejected Special Leave Application No. 2498/2021 filed by Judge Archana D. Jatar, against whom corruption charges have been leveled by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The FIR No. 0025 dated 14/1/2021 under Sections 7 & 12 of the Anti- Corruption Act, 1988, registered by the Dehu Road Police, District Pune, sets out that Archana Jatar, who is a Judicial Officer in the Vadgaon Courts in Maval Taluka had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs.5 lakhs from one Swapnil Madhukar Shevkar, so as not to proceed in his case before her. According to the Complainant, as noted in the FIR, he also had a telephone talk with one ‘Deshmukh’, another Judicial Officer from the Vadgaon Courts.
The Bombay High Court in Anticipatory Bail Application No. 591 of 2021 moved by Judge Archana Jatar, had on March 3, 2021 rejected it. Justice Sarang Kotwal had, in fact, come down heavily on her noting that:
“This is a very serious case, in which a judicial officer is sought to be arrested.”
After the Supreme Court rejected her SLP, Judge Archana D, Jatar was arrested by the Dehu Road Police (through the ACB) on March 29 last and remanded to police custody until April 5, 2021.The investigations are even now continuing vis-à-vis some alleged land cases in which she and others may have played a part, according to the Remand Report.
While, this oral nod from ‘Judge Deshmukh’ indeed may be just hearsay, the incompetence of the ACB sleuths cannot be doubted. They could easily co-relate the calls reportedly made and received; sprung into action against others indulging in such nefarious activities, instead of taking such a laid – back approach. It requires no genius to conclude that if this ‘Judge Deshmukh’ is senior to the arrested woman judicial officer, who is a young mother, he may well be the puppeteer and she, as also other junior Judges of the Vadgaon and Pune District Courts, are puppets, being manipulated by him for kick-backs or judicial favours.
In more than a year the ACB has not filed a Charge Sheet- let alone a supplementary Charge sheet to array this mysterious ‘Judge Deshmukh’, if need be-to escape through some legal loop-holes, which they themselves have created for them. The Superintendent of Police of the ACB, Rajesh Kumar Bansode, unlike his colleagues in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), appears to be quite languid.
While the NCB have made it a habit to arrest all and sundry – including from the film fraternity and their progeny-on bogus charges, the ACB is content to ‘let grass grow under their feet!’ Since all land matters of Maval are adjudicated over in the Vadgaon District Courts, it is an open secret that this alleged bribe is a microscopic part of the actual amounts given and taken as bribes.
The ACB sleuths are either slack in discharging their bounden duties; hopelessly corrupt themselves or they lack teeth and are pressingly in need of a new set of dentures! It is generally felt that, at the very least, as a start, the Principal Judge of the Pune District Courts, ought to look closely into the veracity of these assertions, which are quite serious. It would build public confidence, especially if stern action is taken, without fear or favour.
