Rajasthan High Court acting chief justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma has opted out of judicial work till September 5, amid an escalating controversy over allegations of “corruption”, “nepotism” and “favouritism” levelled against him by Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta and protests by lawyers in Jaipur and Jodhpur seeking his removal as acting chief justice.
The association also decided to send representations to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and President Droupadi Murmu. Justice Mehta has also accused Justice Sharma of nepotism and favouritism, alleging that he backed the elevation of the daughter-in-law of a senior advocate and went out of his way to support lawyers close to him. He has raised allegations of vindictive treatment of a senior judicial officers and questioned several administrative decisions concerning the Jodhpur principal seat. At Jaipur, police were called to the court premises to disperse protesting advocates, while lawyers at Jodhpur also raised slogans and demanded action against the acting chief justice.
A modified roster issued on Monday evening under Justice Sharma’s endorsement said he would not sit on any bench till September 5. The development came hours after the Rajasthan High Court Lawyers Association announced a complete strike till September 6, demanding that Justice Sharma be divested of his administrative charge and a regular chief justice appointed.
The high court website attributed the change to the “non-sitting of Hon’ble the Acting Chief Justice”, with matters earlier assigned to his bench being distributed among other benches. Justice Mehta has alleged that Justice Sharma misused his powers as master of the roster, selectively shifted cases from other benches to his own court and passed orders that raised “serious question marks” over the integrity of the decision-making process. He also alleged that the acting chief justice favoured influential and rich litigants and described the cumulative conduct as amounting to “brazen misuse of powers” that “smack of corruption”. The Supreme Court judge has further alleged that judges of the Rajasthan High Court expressed “anguish” to him over Justice Sharma’s conduct and claimed that the acting Chief Justice frequently threatened colleagues with retaliatory transfers by invoking his alleged proximity to the CJI. In his August 17 letter, Justice Mehta alleged that Justice Sharma had delayed the inauguration of the new Jodhpur District Court building despite it being operationally complete for about a year, describing the resulting loss to the institution as “unpardonable”.
