The putative 45th Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Dipankar Datta, will probably be elevated to the Supreme Court and, if all goes well, assume the office of the CJI after over ten years.
This proves the curses of a frustrated lawyer of the Calcutta High Court who shouted at a taken aback Justice Datta that his “future would be doomed and you will be infected by the COVID-19 virus” had the exact opposite effect.
The 55-year-old Justice Datta issued notice to advocate Bijoy Adhikary for his “abominable” conduct because even after being cautioned his conduct would invite criminal contempt against him, the lawyer seemed “not to care” and continued to shout by banging the microphone on the “addressing table” (sic) because the judge declined to grant urgent relief to the lawyer’s client, whose bus had been seized on January 15 for being unable to repay the loan taken to buy it.
Hilarious as it may sound, Justice Datta needs to be commended for keeping his cool under grave provocation. And well he might because Justice Datta has a distinguished family pedigree. He is the son of a high court judge and brother-in-law of retired Supreme Court judge Amitava Roy who demitted office in 2018.
This elevation is in keeping with the trend of young lawyers with distinguished family pedigrees being elevated at a young age as high court judges, then rising in seniority to be sworn in as chief justices of state high courts before being taken to the Supreme Court where they will assume the office of the CJI. The collegium system affords a great opportunity for retired judges and high-ranking politicians to plan with great perfection, a career for their offspring without attracting much criticism of nepotism as judges’ appointment does not receive the attention of the common people.
It causes great amount of heartburn among lawyers who do not have a family lineage, but are equally or more deserving, but who cannot express their dissent, for they fear it would ruin their practice. But whether judges with distinguished family pedigrees will pass judgments against state and central governments remain to be seen.
This is what separates run-of-the-mill judges from giants like Justices Hidayatullah and Hegde who were never categorised by their contemporaries as being “forward-looking” because they had an eye on their future. This labelling of a few “forward-looking” judges assumes significance after the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL seeking free testing of COVID-19 asymptomatic patients.
Earlier, the same Supreme Court had directed that asymptomatic patients should not be charged for being tested. Amidst these human tragedies, Justice Dipankar Datta will be sworn in as the 45th chief justice of the Bombay High Court. His high court will be flooded with petitions from COVID-19 victims and patients seeking various reliefs from the government.
By appointing Justice Dutta, the apex court collegium has demonstrated to the nation that lockdown or no lockdown, these senior judges will discharge their duty to the nation by recommending transfers of chief justices and elevation of other incumbents. It is not known whether the collegium held video conferences or telephonic talks before finalising these transfers.
So, sensitive petitions demanding compensation for two men who were lynched at Palghar when inside a police jeep may come up before the Bombay High Court. And how these transferred chief justices like Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi of the Patna High Court, who has been transferred to the Madras High Court, and three other chief justices who have also been transferred will deal with human tragedy in these trying times of the pandemic will reveal their mindset.
The Madras High Court declared the right to life included the right to a decent burial after Chennai residents attacked the ambulance carrying the corpse of Dr Simon, the managing director of a hospital in that city. The 55- year-old doctor died after contracting the disease from a patient. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is now lobbying for a special law to protect doctors and health workers from being attacked.
But these elite intellectuals forget they are not the only ones discharging community service. Nearly 50 journalists have tested positive for the deadly virus. Mumbai has recorded 3032 positive cases and 139 deaths, according to India Today news channel on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath proved to the world that if dead doctors are declared martyrs, he is a true karmayogi by not attending the funeral of his father on April 20 due to the lockdown.
In this respect, Yogi Adityanath proved to be the anti-thesis of B.S. Yediyurappa of Karnataka who allowed H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is the son of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, to hold a lavish wedding reception. Former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy not only violated the lockdown, but the huge family of 40 members had photographed next-to-each other, without masks giggling excitedly despite the curfew. This might just be another Jamaat Markaz situation. Or, like the Wadhawan brothers who were issued special passes by Principal Home Secretary Amitabh Gupta of the Maharashtra government to picnic in Mahabaleshwar while the CBI was hunting for these fugitives.
Like the Chinese who exported the coronavirus from Wuhan and now seek to buy the shares of the world’s top companies, top politicians like Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy have enjoyed themselves during this lockdown. Proving that all are not equal before the law. The writer holds a Ph.D. in Media Law and is a journalist-cum-lawyer of the Bombay High Court.