By Md Qaisar Alam*
Madhepura: A confrontation has been precipitated between the Madhepura District Bar Association, and the District Judge Madhepura, Justice Shiv Gopal Mishra, where the former blames him for covering the corrupt practices of some of the members of the district judiciary. The brewing hostility between the Bar and the Bench has threatened the very functioning of the justice delivery system at Madhepura District Court.
The matter took an unpleasant turn when two senior lawyers – Anil Verma and Sanjeev Sinha – approached the District Judge, Shiv Gopal Mishra, complaining about the growing corruption among some of the members of the district judiciary. They also named three judges but the District Judge allegedly blamed the duo for creating unfounded narratives against members of his judicial team. This made the Madhepura District Bar Association’s lawyer community infuriated and started a series of bad feelings and mistrust. Pulkit Prasad Yadav and Sanjeev Kumar, the President and the Secretary respectively of the Madhepura District Bar Association, sent a letter formally apprising the District Judge of the corrupt practices the three judges have been involved in. However, when the District Judge did not respond to the letter for three days, over 226 lawyers signed a written complaint against the said judges and sent that to the Patna High Court to take appropriate action against them. According to the Secretary of the Madhepura District Bar Association, Sanjeev Kumar, this enraged the District Judge, who felt offended and started rejecting and dismissing case after case.
“No matter whether this is a bail petition, or appeal or revision, he has outrightly been rejecting everything. Ostensibly, this is revenge undertaken by the highest member of the district judiciary against the lawyer community; but, the ultimate victims are the poor people, who are getting the brunt of his rage,” Sanjay Singh, a Senior Lawyer of Madhepura District Court, told Global Bihari.
Because of the ongoing tussle between the Bar and the Bench, a large meeting was held today at the District Bar premises, where hundreds of member lawyers participated and expressed their dismay and experience at the lack of sensitivity on the part of the District Judge.
Most of the members, who spoke at the meeting convened, demanded that unless the High Court of Patna takes strict actions against the three corrupt judges things would not be normal. They said the Madhepura District Bar would go on strike till corrective actions are not taken. “We strongly demand that all the three judges identified must be transferred from Madhepura”, said Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary of the Madhepura District Bar Association.
Some of the senior members of the Madhepura District Bar, who were present and addressed the meeting include Jawahar Jha, Sashidhar Prasad Singh, Naresh Mohan Jha, Awadh Kishor Yadav, Noor Alam, Rajendra Yadav, Gajendra Narayan Yadav, Kirtnarayan Yadav, Sadanand Yadav, Anil Verma, Deelip Verma, Suman Singh, Ramanand Lal Das and Sanjay Singh.
*Senior journalist
