Monday, June 18, 2018

Eyebrows Raised on Justice Thipsay Joining the Congress Party

Former High Court Judge Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay has joined the Congress party within a year of his retirement. Had Justice Thipsay been a non-descript judge, the eyebrows would not have been raised. During his judgeship, he had handled many high-profile cases, but the pattern of his judgements was almost the same and similar. Most of the cases decided by him have thrown him in the bad light as they indicate towards his unethical conduct, the perversity of thought process and skewed mentality. The track record of his judgments conclusively proves that the Judge has been hostile to a particular Political Party and its leaders. He used all tools in his armoury to give farfetched logic in his orders to embarrass that Party and its dispensation in Gujrat. Now when he has joined the Congress Party, the apprehensions get substantiated and fortified.
In the Shohrabuddin encounter case, he jailed Amit Shah, the present BJP president. While granting bail to Gujrat police officers DG Vanjara and Narendra Amin, he had made the most uncharitable observation by saying that he was granting them bail because of the rulings of the Supreme Court although he did not believe in their innocence. In the Best Bakery case, he convicted the members of the various Hindutva group for participating in the pogrom of 2002 Gujrat riots. In Kabir Kala Manch case he acquitted all persons charged of Naxalism without giving even a shred of any convincing logic.
There is nothing new in the Judges joining politics after their retirements or after resigning from their posts. Justice Subba Rao resigned from the post of the CJI to contest the election to the high office of the President of India. Justice Barhul Islam of the Supreme Court also resigned to contest the Lok Sabha election and he became the MP, although before becoming the High Court he was two times member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam. The former CJI Rangnath Mishra, Justice KS Hegde, Justice Vijay Bahuguna, Justice M Rama Jois also joined the politics, but nobody raised any accusing figure on the impartiality and impeccability of their judgments. But in the case of Justice Thipsay allegations are made thick and fast that he was he driven by a particular political ideology and not the principles of law. Justice VR Krishna Iyer was a minister in Kerala’s communist party government and he went on to become the Supreme Court judge but he had won all-around applause and laurels for his path-breaking judgements. His integrity was always above board like Ceasar's wife. His judgments speak volumes about his social commitment without having any trace of the party politics.
Judges have been taking up assignments after their retirements and it is considered very common. In fact, there are certain statutory bodies, which can be headed only by the serving or retired judges of the High Courts or the Supreme Cout. but the way, Justice Thipsay conducted himself on the bench corroborates the fact that he often jettisoned the rule of law in his judgements and given way to his political leanings. In fact, that is what is disturbing because that will hesitatingly erode the public’s faith in the judiciary and it will be a sad day if the judiciary loses the faith of the public.

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