Mumbai: I hold no brief for Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dr. Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud. Nor, to my mind, does he need defending, since he has done no wrong. But, with the loud, hysterical cacophony of his detractors persisting, like pariah dogs barking at a mighty elephant; even urinating on its legs, I felt that I must put in my two bits. The elephant, of course, disdainfully ignores these yelping curs.
I hold that everything in life is subjective. I have been admonished often enough that lawyers must be objective. But one cannot teach an old dog new tricks! Furthermore, these hecklers are also subjective in their hollow criticisms.
Some years ago, I had taken up cudgels on behalf of a very distraught; bruised, abused and battered housewife. My mother, Usha Bhowmik, a dedicated social worker, had urged me to take up her matter, pro bono. My hapless client was the wife of a senior bureaucrat in the Maharashtra government; an officer from the IAS cadre. They had four children. The husband was truly a psychological case. He was overly suspicious. He beat his wife all the time on this and any count. He was even apprehensive about the vegetable vendor, who came to their door to sell his wares! When the children tried to intervene, he rained blows and abuses on them also.
It is an open secret that builders were discretely directed by the State Government to allocate a portion of the flats constructed, to be purchased at just ten per cent of their value, by selected bureaucrats and from the judiciary, who had only to declare (dishonestly, of course), on affidavit, that they had no other accommodation anywhere in India or elsewhere. These apartments were in buildings in posh areas of the city like at Cuffe Parade, Cooperage and Bandra. Many of those persons to whom these flats were given, were posted elsewhere or had their own accommodations.
They gave out their premises to the state government at enormous rents, who, in turn, allotted them to officers on postings, at highly subsidized payments. As always, the exchequer and the public bore these additional fiscal burdens
The Chandrachud’s owned a flat at ‘Samanta” building, opposite the Mantralaya Annexe building at Cuffe Parade. Y.V. Chandrachud had just retired as the CJI. His son, Dhananjay, had returned from abroad and was staying with him.
This distressed woman, her husband and their children were neighbors of the Chandrachud’s. Not only all the residents of “Samanta’, but the entire IAS cadre at Mantralaya were fully aware of the severe, vicious and cruel battering this IAS officer’s wife was being subjected to. But no one raised their voice. It was a family matter they reasoned unreasonably; happy to wear horse-blinkers; turn a deaf ear of the woman’s pathetic shrieks and loud sobs. And, take an ostrich-like stance.
But, Y.V. Chandrachud and another retired Judge from the Bombay High Court, could take it no more. With no one else to accompany them, they went to the Cuffe Parade police station to lodge a complaint against the officer concerned. Discretion is the better part of valor. The Senior Police Inspector was fully and painfully aware that if he unwittingly registered the complaint as the First Information Report (FIR), he would be immediately shunted out to a non-lucrative post, since the concerned wife-batterer, was high up in the Home Department of the State Government. Thus, he, astutely, pacified the two retired judicial officers with tea, biscuits and a solemn assurance that he would look into the matter. Predictably, he did nothing.
I was, finally, able to get the offences registered through the Esplanade Courts. I also secured an injunction from the Family Court, preventing the husband from entering into the flat, which belonged, reportedly, to a Supreme Court Judge. I was told by the then Chief Secretary, who I knew well, that His Lordship had gone into a nervous flap as he was afraid that his apartment house might be encumbered, and he might even lose it, on account of the litigations! Y.V. Chandrachud was prepared to record his statement as a witness, which, I think was indeed a very noble gesture. I sincerely doubt if any of CJI D. Y. Chandrachud’s critics would have the guts or grace to do likewise, publicly.
The Chandrachud’s may have some blemishes, but one can never hold them for lack of empathy. Both of them are the epitome of compassion, especially for the lesser fortunate and weaker sections of our society. A judicial system which is devoid of compassion, is a tyranny!
I am distressed to find, of late, so much muck-raking, mostly unjustified, in the media by not only senor advocates but also retired Judges and the like, against CJI Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, who appear to be vying with one another to hog the lime light to get their two minutes of fame. Surely, they all have skeletons in their closets.
I urge this demented lot to take a cue from Jesus of Nazareth who had famously said: “Thou hypocrite! First cast off the beam from thy own eyes. Only then, shalt thou be able to see more clearly to cast off the mote from thy brother’s eyes!” As for CJI Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, some words from the sermon by Shree Krishna to Arjun from the Bhagwat Geeta should suffice: “Casting aside pleasure and pain; loss and gain; victory and defeat. Then, get ready for battle!”
Amit Kumar Bhowmik is a Pune-based lawyer. He can be contacted on his email – amitbhowmik1@gmail.com
