First blog piece by Ashok Arora (1976)

From the Desk of Beauty of A Soul to A Sanyasi Judge
Objection My Lord Justice B N Agrawal


In the course of hearing in the PF scam matter the other day your lordship remarked that you were not a Sanyasi. My lord I beg your pardon to say that your lordship were wrong to deny that you were not a Sanyasi. During my thirty years of association with the judicial system of the country I came across many judges and lawyers who are real Sanyasi. As a matter of fact, all of us possess at least some virtues of a Sanyasi notwithstanding our indulgence in mundane affairs of day-to-day life.

As defined in RAMAYNA and SHRIMAD BHGAWAT GEETA a Sanyasi must possess qualities like truthfulness, dedication to selfless service, discipline, fearlessness, dispassion towards sense objects, should have control over the mind and thirst for knowledge. At the same time he should observe silence, be detached from everything including the result of his own action, should practice non- violence and be forgiving. A Sanyasi should be pure and firm in his actions and thoughts, should use his intellect to perform good actions only, should constantly reflect upon, contemplate and introspect his actions and thoughts, should not harbour negative traits like anger, lust or greed, should not entertain ill will or hatred towards any one and should always be compassionate.

We all are aware of many instances in the recent past where many people world over holding top positions like Presidents, Prime Ministers other public servants including judges fumbled like Dhritrashtras. In the light of these unfortunate realities of life I would say that your lordship is a much better Sanyasi than so many real life Sanyasis. There are very few Sanyasis who have really mastered many qualities of real Sanyas.

Your lordship were absolutely right in saying that since we all come from the same society, people of all profession, be they Parliamentarians, Public Servants, Judges or lawyers, mirror the true image of the society itself. We all are aware of too many persons holding high public office hanker only for power and pelf. To my mind your lordship’s reputation of being an honest and fearless judge, a dedicated and knowledgeable judge who has administered justice religiously sticking to the oath of office makes your lordship a real Sanyasi.

Your lordship is a special child of GOD who has no lust for power or money and who has selflessly served the society. So I beg your pardon once again My lord to say that your lordship were wrong in saying that you were not a Sanyasi. Sanyas is not a ritual. It is a resolve to imbibe the intrinsic virtues of a Sanyasi the most important of which is to dedicate oneself to the selfless service of humanity. No gain saying that with a resolve to tread the path of renunciation one would not become a Sanyasi over night however this resolve would definitely prepare him for evolvement every day by “Leaps and Bounds”, which is really wonderful thing to happen in any one’s life.

In fact every good judge is a Sanyasi or we can say only a Sanyasi can be a good judge. Interestingly the truth is that whenever one acts Sanyasi s/he appears to be a good person and whenever one is carried away or influenced by extraneous factors one appears to be a bad person. So the same judge can be Sanyasi and he can be otherwise for different reasons for different matters.

We all have SATWIK, RAJSIK and TAMSIK TATWAS (elements) in us. The only difference is the varying degrees in which these three elements are present in us. If one has more of SATWIK in him he is considered good and one who has more TAMSIK is considered bad by the society. We all play some time RAMA and sometimes RAWANA. Sant Kabir said it so beautifully; “TERA SAI TERE ANDER” which means your god is within you. In fact, every religion says that the best from of devotion is to conquer the self. Whenever one gets an opportunity to serve a good cause people would say he came to their rescue like a GOD and whenever one acts nasty he is painted as a devil. So fickle is the mind’s functioning that it is rightly termed as a monkey. But I am very sure that your lordship always played RAMA and a Sanyasi while administering justice that is why we all admire you my Sanyasi judge.

Having said this I would be failing my conscience if I don’t express my sadness at your recent unwarranted outburst, comparing a senior counsel with a sea urchin. It was nothing but a result of no control over your anger, may be when according to your perception you were driven against the wall by Sh Shanti Bhushan’s comment that the Supreme Court was protecting the corrupt judges. Please view his comment against the backdrop of CJI’S directive that the investigating agency can send the questionnaire to him (CJI) for further transmission to the erring judge and a strange protection provided to them that in case the investigating agency is not satisfied with the answers it is to again to revert back to the CJI.

During my nearly three decades of dealing with criminal matters I have so far not stumbled on a case where the accused out of his own volition has made a clean breast of his misdeeds. What to talk of a judicial officer or a judge of Supreme Court or High Court even a man on the street would not make confession of his guilt in response to any investigating agency’s questionnaire.
We all know the instances of JMM and HAWALA scandals, which offered two golden opportunities for great remedial measures which, however were lost as the CBI and the courts failed the nation by following a wrong line of investigation and making injudicious judicial interpretations.

I feel Sh Shanti Bhushan was only making a passionate submission about protection of corrupt judges by the Supreme Court in the context of Veeraswami’s judgment and CJI’S protective direction for sending the questionnaire. I also feel that Prashant Bhushan was right in saying that your lordships were putting words into Sh Shanti Bhushan’s mouth by attributing to him that he was alleging that all 26 judges of the Supreme Court were protecting the corrupt judges. By no stretch of imagination any one can infer or make such interpretation to the submission made by Sh Shanti Bhushan. Please appreciate that lawyers like Bhushans are of rare species and that they ought to be encouraged to uphold the Rule of Law. We all feel proud of Prashant who in prime of his youth and career has resolved to serve the society like a true Sanyasi.

Having read few things about Sanyas and having myself resolved to tread this path I am very clear that your lordship is a bigger and better Sanyasi than the so called Sanyasis. The truth of life as mentioned in RAMAYNA is that no one born on this earth could ever claim to have observed all the saintly qualities all the time. So your lordship need not bother too much about your anger because this weakness pales into insignificance if viewed in the light of too many saintly qualities imbibed by you. Here I would like to refer to one of your brother judges who at times has been too vocal to the discomfiture of some people but is a wonderful judge all the same.

Your lordship’s special and rare virtues such as selfless service to the society, fearless approach and the ability to administer justice without any motive, without greed and without fallibility to worldly desires to which, many of your other unfortunate colleagues are known to have succumbed in the recent past make your lordship a real Sanyasi. However My lord it is clear by few of your utterances that some times you have not been able to control your anger either for lack of effort on your part or for other reasons which, I wish to discuss RUH-B-RUH with My lord because if I mention some bitter realities about the anger it would be contempt and I am in no mood to kill my conscience by making a false statement on anger.

However I would travel miles to salute a judge like your lordship who is honest, fearless, compassionate and knowledgeable even if at times he is angry. And no one would ever do the same for a polite but corrupt and weak judge. I am sure most of my colleagues and many of those who have even little knowledge of judicial system would always hold your lordship in high esteem in times to come. While wishing you all the very best, I am sure you would conquer even this anger once you resolve to do that and would continue to serve the society in a big way even after your retirement.

With warm regards to my Sanyasi judge
Ashok Arora, Former Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association
beautyofasoul@gmail.com