New Delhi: It is very rare for a serving Supreme Court judge to praise a politician, that too the prime minister. But when Justice M.R. Shah described PM Narendra Modi as “our most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader”, not many were surprised, let alone shocked, because it’s not the first time he has done so.
During a function to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Gujarat High Court, Justice Shah said: “I am proud and privileged to participate in the function to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Gujarat High Court and that too in the presence of our most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
Two and a half years ago, in August 2018, when he was appointed chief justice of the Patna High Court, Justice Shah had generated controversy for calling PM Modi a “model and a hero”, when asked by a journalist why he was being linked to Modi and then-BJP president Amit Shah
The only other SC judge in recent memory to openly praise PM Modi was Justice Arun Mishra, now retired. He had said in February 2020 that Modi was an “internationally acclaimed visionary” and a “versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally”, for which he drew flak from top legal minds.
Also read: Arun Mishra — SC judge who backed Bar-Bench cordiality, but was part of bitter confrontations
‘Closeness’ to Modi and Shah
Justice Shah enrolled as an advocate on 19 July 1982, and practised in the Gujarat High Court. He was appointed as an additional judge of the HC in March 2004, and was made permanent just over a year later, in June 2005.
Thirteen years later, he was appointed chief justice of the Patna High Court in August 2018.
But in the interim, there were many murmurs about his “closeness” to PM Modi and Amit Shah, which came to the fore in April 2016 when Yatin Oza, the Gujarat HC Bar Association president at the time, wrote to then-Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, calling out two high court judges — Justice Shah being one of them — for their “closeness” to the BJP leaders.
Oza wrote that Justice Shah and Justice K.S. Jhaveri owed their allegiance not to the Constitution of the country but to “7 RCR and 11, Akbar Road” — referring to the PM’s official residence and Amit Shah’s previous official residence in New Delhi.
The Gujarat High Court responded by initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Oza, which were stayed by the SC. A subsequent apology from Oza laid the proceedings to rest.
However, a year later, in 2017, Oza wrote another letter to then-CJI J.S. Khehar, alleging that post-demonetisation, Justice Shah had received new currency notes worth Rs 1 crore in unaccounted cash, “with the aid and help of the state government i.e. by a sitting minister and a leader of a political party who helped him out to convert the old currency notes to new currency notes of denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 2000”.
Stalled transfer, SC’s ire
Justice Shah was first recommended for transfer from the Gujarat High Court to the Madhya Pradesh High Court in February 2016, two months before Oza’s first letter. This recommendation was made by a collegium headed by CJI Thakur.
However, the Modi government made no movement on the file, and didn’t even formally reject the recommendation. This led to a bench headed by Justice Thakur lashing out in open court over the “pendency of certain recommendations for transfer of judges to different high courts” in August 2016.
Thakur specifically referred to Justice Shah’s recommended transfer, saying “if this is the approach of the Union government, then we would have no option but to withdraw judicial work from these transferred judges”.
Then, in January 2017, a day before CJI Thakur’s retirement, a bench headed by him accused the Centre of letting transfers of chief justices and judges of various high courts “languish on somebody’s desk” for months on end. During this hearing, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani as well as Oza referred to the pendency of Justice Shah’s transfer.
“Why is the government so anxious to keep that man (Justice Shah) there? You cannot allow this kind of an attitude from the government. Government needs to be taught a lesson,” Jethmalani, who had served as Union minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, had then submitted.
The government eventually returned the file to the collegium in early 2017, after Thakur retired and Justice Khehar took over as CJI.
Justice Shah continued to serve in Gujarat till July 2018 as the second senior-most judge, till a new collegium headed by then-CJI Dipak Misra recommended his appointment as the chief justice of the Patna High Court.
Justice Shah was elevated as a Supreme Court judge months later, in November 2018. He is due to retire in May 2023.
Also read: CJI Ranjan Gogoi — the ‘revolutionary’ judge who often found himself making headlines
When Justice M.R. Shah described PM Narendra Modi as “our most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader”, not many were surprised, let alone shocked, because it’s not the first time he has done so or because many in this country think so.
If this happens to be a crime then there are very capable lawyers who specialize in being ANDOLAN JEEVI as well to think how can be made into a controversy.
This culture of distrust and suspicion about everything has bread out of the failed governance of years and will take a generations to go away, because question, question, question is a source of livelihood.
The dedicated running down something can only last that long.