Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Delhi High Court judge Swarana Kanta Sharma, who has refused to recuse himself from his case and said he will not appear in the tax policy case personally or through a lawyer before it. In his letter, he also cited statements made by a retired Supreme Court judge regarding his attendance at RSS Bar Association events.
In the four-page letter published on the
“Ideologically, I and my party are vehemently opposed to the ideology of the RSS. When your Lordship attends their programmes so frequently, how can I hope to get justice from this honorable court?” Kejriwal asked.
He also cited recent statements made by the former Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay S. Oka, who said he would have declined any such invitation if it had come his way while he was on the bench.
“I may also respectfully point out that the concerns I have expressed are not entirely alien to the judicial ethos,” Kejriwal wrote. “Former Justice Abhay S. Oka recently went public that if he had been invited by the Adhivakta Parishad while serving as a judge, he would have politely declined because, in his view, the organization had political leanings.”
What did Justice Abhay S Oka say?
retired Supreme Court Justice Abhay S Oka said at a recent function in New Delhi that if he had been invited by the RSS-linked organization ABAP as a “present judge”, he would not have attended their events.
It should be noted that these remarks were made while Justice Oka was speaking at an ABAP event, even though he is no longer a sitting judge.
“If I, as a judge, were invited by the Adhivakta Parishad to speak on their platform, I would have politely declined as the Adhivakta Parishad has political leanings,” he said.
The retired judge was speaking at the event hosted by the RSS-affiliated Supreme Court unit on the topic ‘Jalabah cannot be rented’.
“The events were not political. The speakers were invited to speak on legal issues. In the past, many judges in this country participated in them. Merely inviting me to give a lecture cannot be a basis for insinuating political bias,” she said.
She added: “Judges are called to be judges of the court. In the interaction, there is no room for any political ideology. The relationship between the bar association and the court bench is not limited to the courtrooms only. It is not uncommon for bar associations to regulate their functions. No litigant can be allowed to reckon with the relationship between the bar association and the court bench.”
