Patna High Court judge, Justice Sandeep Kumar, is in the news again. This time for dressing down a government official for getting a job through the reservation system, triggering laughter in the courtroom.
According to a report by Live Law, Justice Kumar was hearing a case involving a district land acquisition officer Arvind Kumar Bharti. The senior judge had asked Bharti to appear before the court and explain why he received compensation from someone even after the plot of land in dispute was under legal proceedings.
Justice Kumar adjourned the case after giving time to file the affidavits. Then he remarked, “Bharti ji, reservation par aaye the naukri me kya? (Bhartiji, did you come in through reservation in the job?)”
When the government officer replied in the affirmative, a few lawyers in the courtroom started making fun. One of the lawyers said, “Ab to huzoor samajhiyega baat (Now your lordship will understand the matter).”
Another added, “Do naukri ki baraabar to hogiya hoga (He must have pocketed enough worth two jobs).”
Hearing this, Justice Kumar said, “Nahi, nahi, yeh sab… kuch nahi hota in logon ka..ye bechara paisa jo kamaya hoga khatam kar diya hoga (No, no, nothing will happen to these people. The poor fellow, whatever he might have earned, he might have finished it).”
This is not the first time Justice Kumar made it into the news for his comments. Only a few days ago, Justice Kumar roasted the Bihar police while hearing a case where a woman’s house was bulldozed.
The visibly angry Justice Kumar said, “Kya yahan bhi Bulldozer chalne laga? (Has the bulldozer action commenced here as well?) Whom do you represent, the state or some private person? Tamasha bana diya ki kisi ka bhi ghar bulldozer se tod denge) This has become some sort of play where anyone’s house can be demolished).”
The Reservation System:
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Section—abbreviated as SC, ST, OBC, and EWS—are the four categories that receive reservation in the majority.
Originally, reservations were only available to SC and ST communities. After the Mandal Commission report’s adoption in 1987, it was expanded to include OBCs.
The Economically Weaker Section’s reservation was extended for the General Category in 2019, but all the categories mentioned receive varying financial values for their reservations: typically, SC and ST draw bigger quotas or advantages, followed by OBC, then EWS.
According to The Indian Express, when asked about the reservation comment, Bharti dismissed it as one made in a “lighter vein”.
