Friday 11 July 2014

Uday Lalit

I am seeing a lot of stupid comments against Uday Lalit, whose name has been recommended for appointment as a Supreme Court Judge.

I personally know Lalit as a man of high integrity. He often appeared before me, and I always found him fully prepared, courteous and competent. It is said that he represented Amit Shah and many criminals in cases. 

In reply I wish to say firstly that Lalit was a lawyer practising on the criminal side. Obviously his clients will often be alleged criminals. Secondly, professional ethics require that a lawyer cannot refuse a brief. Thirdly, a lawyer cannot be identified with his client.

The comments against Lalit are highly unfair

14 comments:

  1. Well said, sir. Spot on. I am tired of naysayers and leg-pullers who are hell-bent on breaking India.

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  2. Your Honour,we READILY CONCEDE that
    1.A lawyer's clients will be alleged criminals
    2.Professional ethics require that a lawyer cannot refuse a brief.
    3.A lawyer cannot be identified with his client.
    4.The lawyer in question may well be fully prepared,courteous,competent,honest,articulate and well-versed in law.

    The question is HOW MANY clients are ABLE to pull strings and elevate their lawyers to a judge-ship -that too of the Highest Court in the land.Not certainly the common man!!...We are not talking about the PRINCIPLE behind the elevation....it is definitely about the POWER behind the elevation.

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    1. What power? Do you know the same Supreme Court panel that elevated Gopal Subramaniam also elevated Uday Lalit? NOT the government?

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  3. We The People of India thank Justice Katju for enumerating the PRINCIPLES of Justice.We are also under NO ILLUSIONS whatsoever that while Uday Lalit has been ELEVATED based on those principles, Gopal Subramaniam has been REJECTED based on those very same principles.

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    1. Uday Lalit was nominated by the SAME judicial panel which nominated Suramaniam. So make your choice: Either the judiciary is independent or they are Modi puppets. If the latter then you were wrong to defend Subramamniam as he was also their nominee.

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  4. What you say is of course absolutely right. However, of all the lawyers who might be elevated to the SC, is Uday Lalit, his professionalism and competence as a criminal lawyer apart, the obvious choice?

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  5. Dear lazyreader,
    The Govt. returned the apex court collegium's recommendation based on a CBI report adversely reflecting on GS's role in dealing with the 2G scam and the mention of his name in corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's tapes.The Govt. has defended its decision, with Ravi Shankar Prasad saying it was based on "cogent, proper and sound grounds".Gopal Subramaniam has said.."I am known to be utterly, utterly, utterly independent, which means I am inaccessible…”. In a letter to the CJI,GS has said: "I'm fully conscious that my independence as a lawyer is causing apprehensions that I will not toe the government line. This factor has been decisive in refusing to appoint me.". The Hoot website says..." it was quite obvious that a BJP-led government would not allow GS to become a judge because of his fearless conduct as the amicus curae in the Sohrabuddin case but it wasn’t quite clear as to how the Govt. would go about the task of objecting to his elevation without rubbing the Supreme Court on the wrong side. Ultimately, instead of having the courage to write down its objections on paper and exercise its legitimate prerogative in judicial appointments, the Central Government withheld his file and began the process of selective leaks to the media. The exercise had its desired effect with GS pulling out of the race before the Supreme Court had an opportunity to reconsider its decision."

    Senior Counsel Shanti Bhushan also tore this defence of the Govt to shreds when he said.."….It is quite clear that the CBI and the IB have been induced to do a hatchet job for the BJP which was angry with GS as an Amicus appointed by the Supreme Court for taking a tough stand in the Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, in which Amit Shah the blue eyed boy of Narendra Modi has been chargesheeted…The government says that a conversation between Radia and some third person shows Subramaniam in a poor light. On the contrary, the conversation between Radia and Ratan Tata where his name is mentioned shows him in a very favourable light, since Radia says, "I am not sure that he (Subramaniam) will agree to what they say. He is an upright person. I think Raja will be trying to get the AG (Vahanvati)".In fact, the Radia tapes contain a deadly conversation between Radia and the former Finance Secretary N.K. Singh who was then a member of the Rajya Sabha and is now a prominent member of the BJP is found acting as an agent of Mukesh Ambani and conspiring with her about how to get a provision introduced in the Finance Bill to give a retrospective Tax concession to Mukesh Ambanis's company passed. He tells Radia about how he has managed to get the BJP leadership to replace Arun Shourie who was going to oppose the bill, by Venkaiah Naidu (former President of the BJP), who was found to be close to the Reliance President and who was told to support this bill. Arun Shourie in his interview with Karan Thapar confirmed the truth of these events. Instead of taking action against those in the BJP leadership who are caught in the Radia tapes as being agents of Ambani, the government has targeted an independent lawyer by using the bogey of his name being merely mentioned in the Radia tapes… An allegation of this type is absurd.I have observed the career of Subramaniam since the beginning with considerable intellect and I have found him to have the highest professional rectitude, a keen interest and a capacity for hard work..”

    Nowhere was it suggested that the Supreme Court panel are Modi puppets. On the contrary there is the highest regard for the Highest Court of the land. The reference was to the power of those controlling the levers of Govt. and not that of the Supreme Court.When we speak of POWER it is also the POWER TO SEGREGATE and by extension the POWER TO DENY. The segregation of a proposal is tantamount to an EFFECTIVE VETO by the Government.This fact is well understood by anyone who understands how POWER works.

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    1. Dear AAP social media team member,

      My question is about the massive dishonesty and distortion of truth I am seeing from you guys since yesterday over Uday Lalit's nomination. To claim Modi and Amit Shah had anything to do with Uday Lalit becoming a Supreme Court judge and saying he is a Modi puppet is tantamount to smearing the ENTIRE higher judiciary including Chief Justice of India RM Lodha who was on the very panel that just nominated Uday Lalit.

      This is something Kejriwal and all major AAP leaders and all their followers and activists have been doing nonstop since yesterday. Smearing Uday Lalit, the former 2G prosecutor, just because he represented Amit Shah years ago, and then smearing the Supreme Court and pretending they were just puppets and it was the Modi government who appointed him.

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    2. For the record..believe what you will but I'm not a card carrying member of the AAP.You seem to have some hidden agenda twisting words like that.By the way which right-wing reactionary party are you shilling for ?You seem to be as lazy in your blogging as you are in your reading.

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    3. Don't worry, I am just another an Ambani/Adani/RSS/Modi agent as the AAPturds like to call them. What I am pointing out is the inherent dishonesty in their 'honest politics' over this issue. They area unfairly maligning the entire higher judiciary in India because of their personal hatred of Shah.

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    4. In a post titled "Contempt of Court",Justice Katju has demonstrated how easy it is for the Judiciary to pull up anyone perceived to be maligning it.If there is indeed "maligning" of the Higher Judiciary by the AAP then by now we should have seen vigorous and swift response against the AAP (including summons and warrants) to such a perceived maligning.If anyone is indeed maligning the Higher Judiciary it is those holding the reins of power .It is obvious from the reaction of Justice Lodha that he perceives the real maligning to come not from the AAP as is alleged but from the executive.Justice Lodha minced no words when he wrote in a letter to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad "I don't approve of segregation of proposal without my knowledge and concurrence.... In future, such a procedure of unilateral segregation should not be adopted by the executive."He also said later.." "For the last more than 20 years, I fought for independence of judiciary and to me this is one subject which is not negotiable. At no cost, the independence of judiciary can be allowed to be compromised,I will be the first man to leave this chair...if I know that judiciary's independence has been compromised. I will not hold my office for a second."

      There has been high praise for Gopal Subramaniam from various senior Justices and senior counsel.It may be pertinent to recall what the Chief Justice of a India, R.M.Lodha said about Subramanium in a personal commendation after Gopal resigned as Solicitor General in 2011 under the UPA regime."It was a sad thing to learn that you have resigned from the position of Solicitor General of India. Not only that in every single case --in which you represent the Central Government and its functionaries -- was ably conducted by you but it also reflected your high character, sweet manners and single minded application,".Former CJI Mr S.H.Kapadia, also wrote to Gopal, saying in his 21 years as a judge in the Mumbai High court and Supreme Court, "I have not come across a more competent, erudite and scholastic law officer as Gopal Subramanian. I say this with all authenticity at my command". He further added, " I wish to put on record that you have served this country as Solicitor General for which the people of this country should be eternally indebted to you".Former SC judge VR Krishna Iyer had earlier expressed “regret” over the government’s rejection and had appealed for a review of its decision. Iyer in a statement issued, said Subramanian's installation as a judge would be an honour for the Supreme Court Bench."To disallow him that post will be an indefensible disaster and disappointment, which the country need not suffer from at all. As a retired judge of the Supreme Court myself I regret this measure of the Prime Minister. I hope he will reconsider his decision. The country cannot afford to lose a sound and splendid lawyer who will adorn the Supreme Court Bench,”

      Contrast the statements of all the above with the actions of this Govt.By spreading malicious innuendoes about Gopal Subramaniam through selective leaks using anonymous sources, it had the effect of Gopal Subramaniam withdrawing his name which is what the Govt wanted in the first place.There couldn't have been a more crude and small minded approach by the State apparatus to put down a candidate's nomination as a judge of Supreme Court. The Govt used the country's top two investigating agencies - the Intelligence Bureau and the CBI who 'red-flagged' the appointment of former Solicitor General Gopal Subramnium as a Supreme Court judge, citing 'personality oddities' and 'corporate links'. But while the two agencies have now found fault with him, both have widely used his services in top criminal cases and was their first choice in many cases!

      It is obvious that the real maligners of the judiciary is the BJP Govt and not the AAP.To suggest otherwise is to turn reality on its head.

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    5. AAP have been ignored by the judiciary only because they don't have the guts to openly make allegations in public and are instead running a low profile smear campaign on twitter and facebook. If Kejriwal dared question CJI Lodha and Justice Uday Lalit on TV you can be sure the Supreme Court would tear him to pieces and you would weep(since Kejriwal is your God).

      To ignore the tweets from Kejriwal and other AAP leaders openly calling UU Lalit a stooge of Amit Shah and saying he was elevated solely because of his political connection is sheer blindness from a slave of the AAP.

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    6. Kejriwal is not my God and neither am I a supporter of the AAP.By the way are you a lazy supporter of those who are uncomfortable with women wearing short skirts on the beach but equally comfortable with casinoes on the river?.We know you are a lazy reader?You don't have to doubly reassure all of us that you are a lazy hypocrite.

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  6. And by the way Lazyreader....there was no disrespect intended to Justice Katju in the comments.On the contrary there are many admirers of Justice Katju and his work at the Press Council.Let us not forget that the same names mentioned by Shanti Bhushan are also today some of the biggest owners of media in India.Let us not forget that Justice Katju has fought a valiant reargaurd action at the Press Council against some of these very same forces who have sought to malign and traduce his name.Remember how the "90% of Indians are 'idiots " comments were blown all out of context by the media?That's how POWER works..

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