Date: 28/04/2014, Mumbai
To,
Not so Hon’ble Justice RM Lodha,
Chief Justice – Supreme Court of India
In Contempt of You, ‘My Lord’.
This letter is not to congratulate you for your appointment as the Chief Justice of India. As a citizen of this country, I write this letter with utmost discontent and at the same time with the hope that I’m able to reach out to your conscience. If not, then at least give you some sleepless nights.
Let me explain this disgust with you and the system of judiciary that allows and permits people like you to sit on the reverent chair of Justice.
You have never attempted to hide the fact that you are a member of the Nyay Sagar Co-operative Housing Society, your voluntary disclosure on property holdings on Supreme Court web site shows your holding of Flat no B-4 at the said housing society.
Like other not so hon’ble judges you have also given your flat on rent since you are not staying there and will be enjoying the benefits of an official accommodation in Delhi. It seems justified since if you are not staying there then it is better to give that flat on rent. It should not be of any one’s concern that how much rent you get, even if it is something like rupees five lakh per month.
But sorry, I not only have a concern but an objection. The land on which the building of Nyay Sagar stands has been usurped by you along with your brethren judges. As you were very much aware that this land was reserved under the Mumbai Development Plan for housing of the Dis-housed. To help you recall ‘dis-housed’ is that category of fellow human beings who are in need of a “House” unlike us who enjoy the privilege of a shelter, rather place of comfort and at time luxury.
During your stay in Mumbai, you might have got a firsthand sight of the abysmal poverty in which the poor of the city are forced to live. If nothing else, the window of your car would have been softly banged by a mother holding her child which you might think as an act of beggary. But don’t pity on her, because rather than begging she was demanding her due – the due that you along with your brethren have grabbed and snatched away in the form of the housing society, which ironically you have named Nyay Sagar: the ocean of justice. One is kept wondering from where you got the audacity to name the act of injustice as symbolic of Justice!!
You will also remember, I assume the complaint that has been file by us in the year 2012 at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Mumbai for prosecuting you along with other accused for entering into a conspiracy of grabbing prime land at Bandra. It has not been surprising to us that no headway has been made by the Bureau in investigating the matter, since you yourself had made those remarkable remarks of “CBI being a caged parrot” in the famous case of coal allocation which in this case can be translated into ACB being a caged parrot.
It is still expected of your conscience to see that there are parallels between the two cases, rather three: the 2G spectrum case, the coal field allocation case and the Nyay Sagar land allocation case. All the three exhibits the blatant abuse of the office by those in authority for the purpose of benefiting themselves or those who are not entitled for such benefits. In case of Nyay Sagar, the only difference is that in the other two cases you yourself and your brethren judges wore the high mantle of justice and propriety while in this case you adopted double standards. It should not have been so as going by the age old adage – Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.
I hope that by writing this letter, one has been able to convey resentment towards you and your so called justice which has only become a mockery and medium of exploiting the poor. It will not be wrong to say that we, the people have faced the failure of all the mediums to get fair justice, including yours. But still, one wants to ask you – should one hope for fair justice from you or should that be thought of as a distant dream.
In contempt of you,
Simpreet Singh
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