Bar Assn resolves against farewell to Justice Shah but govt goes all out

Bar Assn resolves against farewell to Justice Shah but govt goes all out

PANJIM: Even as the Goa High Court Bar Association decided against a farewell dinner to Justice Mohit Shah, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, who is retiring on September 8, the State government went out of its way to arrange a farewell party for the retiring judge.

Justice Mohit Shah was to be accorded a lavish farewell dinner at the Marriott Resort on August 20, but this was moved to the Goa Legislative Assembly Complex due to protests from various quarters.

Herald investigations revealed that the Goa High Court Bar Association, in its meeting on August 17, at the High Court Conference hall, resolved not to accord any farewell to the retiring judge due to his conduct with members of the Bar Association.

However, a senior member of the judicial system called the members of the association asking them the reasons for the resolution and also tried to convince them to revert their decision, which was rejected by the members.
Herald, through its sources, has now learnt that Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni intervened and spoke to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the issue, who readily agreed to give a farewell party to the retiring judge.

It may be recalled that Chief Secretary R K Srivastava had recently asked all departments to stop farewell dinners following reports in the media that lakhs of rupees are being spent on farewell dinners to IAS officers.

The government had first decided on a lavish party at Marriott Resort but social activists wrote to the Chief Secretary as well as Justice Shah against this saying the Bombay High Court at Goa is hearing a petition against the same hotel and had also ordered a partial demolition of the hotel.

Herald further dug into the story and found that Justice Shah, who had previously worked as Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, from December 2009 to June 2010, has quite a close relationship with Parrikar.

“Instead of keeping a very safe distance from politicians, Justice Mohit Shah kept visiting Goa very often, and since March 2012, danced to the tunes of then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni even on the issue of transfer of Judges, possibly with a hope that he would leap to the Supreme Court,” Adv Aires Rodrigues told Herald.
He said an example is how the Goa CBI Court Judge PV Sawaikar was abruptly and unceremoniously shunted.

“Parrikar complained to Justice Shah about Judge Sawaikar, and sought his removal from hearing corruption-related cases. Justice Shah obliged Parrikar, and got Judge Sawaikar removed on the eve of his scheduled pronouncement of an order, which he had reserved in the corruption case against Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly, Rajendra Arlekar,” Adv Rodrigues said.

He added that there is a need for a high level probe into the nexus between Justice Shah and Parrikar with Nadkarni as a facilitator.

Herald has learnt that the government is set to appoint the retiring judge as the next Lokayukta of Goa, though he has been deemed unfit to be elevated to the Supreme Court by the Collegium.

When contacted, Parsekar denied that any name has been finalised for the post of Lokayukta but maintained that one would be appointed within a month.

“The government has written to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for names of eligible retired judges of the Supreme Court as well as the retired chief justices of the High Courts, for the post,” he said, adding “the process should be completed within a month”.