Judicial storm

Justice Behram Jahanbux Shethna of the Gujarat High Court was in the eye of a judicial storm when, on January 11, 2007, he allegedly assaulted brother judge Justice P. B. Majmudar. The latter wrote to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court complaining that "Shethna had done some badtamizi (misbehavior) with him” while on a morning walk in the Judges Bungalows area of Ahmedabad, reported The Indian Express of January 17, 2007. Denying the allegations, Shethna claimed that Majmudar harbored a grudge against him because in April 2006 he had passed a highly critical order against Majmu­dar’s lawyer son for representing a complainant in a matter which had been heard earlier before his father, which is an unethical practice.

Successive Chief Justices of India Y. K. Sabharwal and K. G. Balakrishnan sought to take stern action by transferring Shethna to the Sikkim High Court. The Supreme Court collegium has now cleared the transfer of both Shethna and Majmudar out of Gujarat, reported The Indian Express of February 8, 2007. Reacting to this, jurist Fali Nariman has, in The Indian Express of February 9, 2007, called this "most distressing — not because the concerned judge in question deserves sympathy (he does not), but it is unfair on the… litigating public of the State of Sikkim and it is a slur on the High Court of Sikkim which under our Constitution has the same status as any other High Court in the country.”

"I am being crucified for being truthful,” claimed Shethna who was particularly unhappy over the fact that the Supreme Court did not get his version of the altercation with Majmudar before deciding to transfer him. He made it clear that he would not resign, reported The Times of India (TOI) of February 10, 2007. Earlier, he had declared (TOI, January 18, 2007) that he would rather quit than be transferred. While the Sikkim High Court has only 600 pending cases, there are over one lakh such cases in Gujarat. Shethna claims he has disposed of 50,000 cases, a record for any judge. After nearly 20 years of practice he was elevated to the Bench of the Gujarat High Court as additional judge in 1990, and confirmed as permanent judge in 1994.

In his reply to the Chief Justice of India, Shethna had denied any assault and instead accused Majmudar of hurling abuses at him, reported TOI of January 19, 2007. Shethna wrote that when the two met during their morning walk he invited Justice Majmudar over to his house for tea, but when the latter started "using foul language” against his elder brother K. G. Shethna, he threatened to have the judge evicted by his guards.

Justice Majmudar should consider himself lucky that he didn’t suffer much damage in the alleged scuffle, reported TOI, January 18, 2007, tongue firmly in cheek, for Shethna, a fitness freak, is a regular at a local gym. The muscular judge, wearing dark glasses and sporting a shaved head, which is customary for him during the hot summer months, was shown pumping iron and flexing his muscles in a 50-second advertisement clip telecast by local cable channels. The Gujarat High Court Bar Association has not taken kindly to this advertisement, stated the TOI report.