Voice of the people
Flat No. 1, 3rd Floor, Mitra Kunj, 16, Pedder Road, Mumbai 400 026.
18th July, 2019
1) Hon’ble Shri Justice Ranjan Gogoi,
Chief Justice of India,
Supreme Court of India,
New Delhi.
2) Hon’ble Shri Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, Chief Justice,
High Court of Judicature at Bombay,
Mumbai-400 032.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS:
1. We, common people, activists and lawyers, are constrained to address Your Lordships since despite it being repeatedly brought to the notice of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, the most condemnable manner in which the power of contempt of Court is abused to silence, ridicule, nay, liquidate Shri Mathews J. Nedumpara, who is leading a campaign titled National Lawyers Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms (NLC), no concrete step has been taken to undo the grave injustice done to him which does not merely mean injustice done to him, but to the common people because he is their voice. We wish to point out one single incident which is enough to demonstrate how unfairly the contempt powers vested in the Supreme Court and the High Courts as Courts of record of plenary jurisdiction is used to victimize, ridicule and liquidate Shri Nedumpara, probably as a warning to anyone who dares to follow his path, namely, speak for transparency and accountability in the higher judiciary.
2. Sometime in February, 2011, Shri Nedumpara had addressed a confidential letter in a sealed cover inside a sealed cover to the then Chief Justice of India and other constitutional functionaries about a well known judicial fixer who claimed to be close to Justice Mohit Shah, the then Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. It appears that the said letter invited the wrath of Justice Mohit Shah. With the sole intention to liquidate Shri Nedumpara and assassinate his character, Justice Mohit Shah, acting in connivance with Dr. Birendra Saraf, son of another Chief Justice and currently the Secretary of the Bombay Bar Association, made an allegation in the open Court of Justice Mohit Shah that Shri Nedumpara had impersonated Shri Justice S.J. Vazifdar. Dr. Saraf made his client, one Shri Tambe, an Assistant General Manager of a Bank, to file an application to support his allegation. Justice Mohit Shah asked for the call records from the service providers which revealed that Shri Nedumpara did not at all call Shri Tambe even once, but it was Shri Tambe who had called him nine times, two of which he picked up and the conversation lasted for 16 and 19 seconds, respectively, and the rest seven were missed calls. Shri Nedumpara, in a crowded open Court, demanded Shri Tambe to be proceeded against for filing a false affidavit, but instead of doing so Shri Justice Mohit Shah issued a show cause notice for contempt against Shri Nedumpara. The reason offered was that there was contact between the cell numbers of Shri Nedumpara, his client Shri Tejwani and Shri Tambe, though even a child would have no difficulty to realize/understand that there was contact between the said cell numbers because Shri Tambe had called Shri Nedumpara.
3. The issuance of contempt notice against Shri Nedumpara received wide publicity. The fact that Shri Nedumpara was implicated falsely got even greater publicity. The issuance of contempt notice against Shri Nedumpara had caused far greater damage to Justice Mohit Shah and the institution of judiciary than Shri Nedumpara because almost everyone in Mumbai came to know that Shri Nedumpara was falsely implicated as he spoke against corruption. The only advantage his adversaries could make was to make the said judgment to hound and harass him, a ploy to subjugate him wherever he has raised his voice against injustice and corruption in judiciary. Though Shri Nedumpara, was willing to forgive Dr. Saraf, for, he believes in the philosophy of forgiveness, nay, hate the sin, not the sinner, in order to vindicate his stand he instituted a criminal complaint, which the learned Magistrate took cognizance of soon after Shri Justice Mohit Shah demitted his office as the Chief Justice.
4. The abovementioned incident of invoking contempt jurisdiction by the Bombay High Court on a false allegation that Shri Nedumpara has impersonated Shri Justice Vazifdar, even when the call records revealed that Shri Nedumpara had not called Shri Tambe but it was the latter who had called the former and no impersonation could be committed without Shri Nedumpara ever calling Shri Tambe, a black dot in the judicial history of this country, was used by Hon’ble Shri Justice Rohinton F. Nariman to convict Shri Nedumpara for contempt in the face of the Court in a case in the Supreme Court, though the said allegation, even if it is true, can be no reason to so convict him because contempt in the face of the Supreme Court and impersonation of Shri Justice Vazifdar are two different things. Shri Nedumpara happened to invite the wrath of Justice Nariman only because in a Writ Petition he raised the issue of impropriety of Shri Fali Nariman practising in the Supreme Court where his son is a Judge, citing the example of legendary Justice Krishna Iyer who had asked his son even to give up his legal profession when he was elevated to the Supreme Court and of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan whose father legendary Sivasankaran Panicker, the doyen of the Kerala Bar, gave up his practice at a relatively young age when his son was elevated to the Kerala High Court.
5. The issuance of contempt of Court notice against Shri Nedumpara for impersonation of Justice Vazifdar when the call record produced before the Court indicated that he had not called Shri Tambe, but it was Shri Tambe who had called Shri Nedumpara and Shri Tambe be proceeded against for perjury, which plea was not acceded to, can have no parallel in the legal history anywhere in the world. What Shri Nedumpara has stated is incontrovertible truth. The contempt proceeding against Shri Nedumpara is pending despite all efforts on his part to secure an early hearing and disposal thereof. There cannot be a greater injustice than the pendency of the said proceeding, for, every minutes delay in undoing the injustice done to him amounts to greatest disgrace for the Indian judiciary. Shri Nedumpara thinks that the case has brought the credibility of the institution of judiciary to its nadir. The earlier the wrong is corrected, the better for the institution.
6. We part with reminding Your Lordships in all humility that the only way in which the Indian judiciary could regain its lost reputation, majesty and glory is to live upto the expectation of the people by delivering justice independently and impartially, without the unethical use of the contempt of Court power, which results in the complete erosion of the faith of the common man in it.
7. With the fond hope that Your Lordships will rise upto the requirement of the situation.
We remain,
Yours sincerely,
Signatories:
1) Mr. Sunil Gupta
President, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9820641077
2) Mr. Dhanesh Jain
Vice President, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9820237498
3) Ms. Precilla Dsouza
Vice President, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9867997084
4) Ms. Shylaja Vijayan
General Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No-9220703369
5) Mr. Sandeep Sheregar
General Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 8108116885
6) Mr. L. Ramanathan
General Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No-
7) Mr. Rajagopalan Nair
Treasurer, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9892809502
8) Ms. Maheshwari Khanal
Joint Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 8369836858
9) Ms. Shweta Vishwanathan
Joint Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9870989021
10) Ms. Sunayana Babar
Joint Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No-8108278366
11) Mr. Philip Oommen
Joint Secretary, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9131559086
12) Ms. Simran Patil
Executive Committee Member, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9137081582
13) Ms. Shashikala Mahamuni
Executive Committee Member, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No- 9226828706
14) Mr. Sandeep Thakkar
Executive Committee Member, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No-
15) Ms. Preeti Dambre
Executive Committee Member, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No-
16) Mr. Amritpal Singh Khalsa
Executive Committee Member, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Mob No