Thread by @barandbench

Farewell ceremony for Delhi High Court judge, Justice JR Midha, on the occasion of his retirement to begin shortly.

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Before the ceremony begins, a two-minute silence is observed for Judicial officers, judges, lawyers who have succumbed to COVID-19.

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We are here to bid farewell to one of the most humanitarian judges who did not let go of any opportunity to extend help, one of the most humane judges, Advocate Abhijat says.

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Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur welcomes the gathering.

Justice MR Midha is leaving after 14 years of dedicated service to this institution, Mathur notes.

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The last year has been truly devasting, I would convey my deepest respects to the members of the legal fraternity, lawyers, and judicial officers alike, who lost their battle of life to COVID-19: Mathur

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Mathur: I must thank Justice Shakdher for encouraging us and supporting us in initiating what we have started as a continuing (COVID relief) fund for helping our members who have been severely impacted. I thank all colleagues and members of the bar and judges for their support

Mathur: We may not have our canteen to celebrate this hour (for Justice Midha's send-off by the Bar) as we have usually done, but on a lighter note, the lack of samosas and deep-fried pakoras may be healthy for our hearts and health

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Mathur notes that Midha J. is known for working towards swift justice, incl in motor accident cases

Mathur: Very few would know that this passion dates back to when he was teaching in CLC, where he had organized lok adalats, had students sit to calculate compensation for victims

Mathur recalls back to when Justice Midha taught him in college. Mathur says he was not regular in attending classes

Mathur: He was generous enough to give sufficient marks that I passed. Perhaps that was the last thing I did and left it with CPC

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Mathur: He has been truly a citizen's judge. This he has shown on heading the Bench on civil, criminal side. On all forums. I have seen Justice Midha has been truly reaching out to people in some way or another. I think victimology has been his real passion

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Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra: I am here not in the capacity of a lawyer, but as a student of Justice Midha. He was my teacher at the CLC, Delhi. He was one of our most popular teachers.

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Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra: His approach was in-depth study, understanding of the subject and he used to bring a passion to his class so all of us students were enthused. Mohit, I must tell you, I attended all of his classes.

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Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra: For me, Justice Midha symbolizes what a guru must be - a person who guides, teachers and at the same time his approach has always been to discuss, to debate, and to encourage.

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Sr Adv Sandeep Sethi: In my opinion, Justice Midha has been a standout judge for at least five reasons. Firstly, his demeanor. I have always found Justice Midha to be smiling all the time, even when he disagreed with the counsel. I have never seen him grumpy

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Sethi: I found that there was a thread running through his judgments and his views orally in court. That thread was of high moral ground, of morality, honesty. Therefore, he looked at the conduct of parties in deciding a matter.

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Sethi: How moral a person was, how good he was in demeanor and actions. For him (Justice Midha), moral conduct was almost important as law on his side. So I found him to be a judge of conscience

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Sethi: Thirdly, I found him to be a compassionate judge, manifested in the large jurisprudence he has left. He was concerned about fair and early justice.

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Sethi: Fourthly, I found that most of his judgments on a subject not declared earlier or nascent in terms of precedents, he would trace out the entire law, going back centuries. It would become a compendium for both sides to refer to in the future.

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Last, but not least, Sethi says that he found Justice Midha to be a great judge for form. Once you following the Judge's instructions to file submissions in a particular way and form, lawyers found them to be of great assistance in submissions, he says

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Advocate Abhijat conveys thanks to Justice Midha for his judgement concerning feeding of stray dogs.

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Senior Advocate AM Singhvi: When Justice Midha gets into something, he digs deep. He delves in a manner to immerse himself.

@DrAMSinghvi

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Singhvi: Being an animal lover myself and having appeared in many cases from Jallikuttu to perversely crowded hen coops, I was struck by the stray dogs judgment. A very skillful balance between competing rights of society and the welfare of such animal orphans.

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Singhvi: Above all - above Justice Midha, the judge, above Justice Midha, the lawyer - is Justice Midha "JR, the man". His remarkable spirituality as opposed to what I consider pedantic religiosity is what makes him cheerful.

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Singhvi describes Justice Midha as "ever-smiling, positive and let me add, forgiving to a fault"

Singhvi: There are people who have wronged him. But the way he has made them aware of their own internal shortcomings and moved on to forgive and forget is exemplary

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Senior Advocate AS Chandhiok: The canvas of your Lordship's judgments almost left no area of law untouched.

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Chandhiok: Your Lordship observed yesterday, you do not see who appears before you but always see through him the litigant behind him and see if justice can be reached to that litigant.

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Chandhiok: Thank you milord for dispensing justice with such an open heart with innovative, new ideas, keeping in mind especially the vulnerable sections.

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Justice Vipin Sanghi: He (Justice MR Midha) has that magnetism in him that he attracts anyone everyone to him. Lot of us used to gather around him, primarily because he had a lot of interesting stories to tell and a very good collection of jokes.

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Justice Sanghi: In the initial years, every weekend, he (Justice Midha) would be away to some or the other known temple or even unknown temple. He would come back with the prasad and distribute. He would tell us something interesting about the temple.

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Justice Sanghi: Over the years, he stopped that. And I once questioned him. He said, to find God, one does not have to go to any temple. One could see that he has progressed in his spiritual attainment.

Justice Sanghi: He has laid down procedural guidelines. That is not an easy task. Speaking for myself, I would hesitate to take the task lest I miss something. But Justice Midha has done that and this shows the competence, how much thinking goes into his judgment writing.

Justice Sanghi: Justice Midha has been extremely popular, not only with the bar but also with the judges. We will all miss him very dearly. We will miss his jokes. On behalf of all my colleagues, I wish him all success.

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Justice Sanghi: We are sure he will be very popular with the Bar with arbitration, legal opinions and we have no doubt that he will be very sought after for his services.

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Justice Midha: I am really moved by the warmth shown by all of you. I joined the Bar in 1982 and was elevated after 26 years in 2008.

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Justice Midha: Today when I look back and see the life, how I started - I belonged to a very humble background. I lost my father when I was 13. There was no one to support in the family.

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Justice Midha: When I joined the Bar, I still remember, on 5 August '82, I purchased a briefcase and used to travel on the bus from Krishna Nagar to Tiz Hazari for two years. Then I had occasion to buy a scooter, which I continued for 5-7 years before buying an old fiat.

Justice Midha: And I had never dreamt of.. I must complement the system in which a common person with no legal background and godfather can be elevated and comes to this position.

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Justice Midha: When I used to come to the High Court, I used to see all the people here, I never thought I can even reach that level either in the legal profession or in the judiciary. I must compliment the system. This very system has lifted me. It is something very magnanimous.

Justice Midha: Today, with all the four speakers who have spoken about me, I am really moved.

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Justice Midha: Today when I look back on my life here in Court, I am more than satisfied. I am leaving, demitting office with a lot of satisfaction and completeness. I have no regret in life. I feel like I had a purpose to come here, which I have fulfilled.

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Justice Midha expresses thanks to those who had supported him as a young lawyer. He goes on to recall his days as a teacher.

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Midha J.: At that time, my work was less so I spent a lot of time teaching. I used to change subjects every 6 months. I was able to teach 11 subjects. That was when really I myself understood the law inside out. That 3-yr period was the best periods of my life

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Justice Midha: I take justice as truth in action. So in every case, my first endeavour is to find out the truth. I always tell the counsel, both the parties, the counsel know the truth. Except for me, everybody in the court knows the truth. I am on trial to find out the truth.

Middha J.: Truth cannot be found by arguments alone. One eg, that if I have to find out the taste of a liquid in a bottle before me, and one side is arguing it is sweet, the other that it is sour, whether I hear it one day or 10 years, the only way to find out is to taste it.

Justice Middha: And once I taste it, all arguments become irrelevant. So, therefore, in every case, how to reach the truth? We don't have a divine eye.

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Justice Midha: I also realized that the truth can be broken with arguments. With wonderful arguments, the truth can be broken. So in every case, we have to find a way how to reach the truth.

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Justice Midha: When I find that there has been a case of gross injustice or false claim raised, I'll take that file and examine the party on oath in exercise of power under 165, Evidence Act. This is the most novel provision that I found.

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Justice Midha: As a lawyer used this provision many times. I requested the court, please examine, truth will come out in 5 minutes. No court agreed with me.

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Justice Midha: But when I came on this side (became a judge), I examined the parties on oath and in most cases, I was able to reach the truth.

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Justice Midha speaks on how wide Section 165, Indian Evidence is.

Justice Midha: I'll leave it at that. Today is not the time for me to give a legal (lecture). I am here to thank all of you .. I have much to say, but not on this occasion

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Justice Midha says he will leave two issues for the consideration of the Bar.

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Justice Midha: One experience happened in 2011 when I came to the original side roster. It was the first day and I had the experience if some lawyer doesn't come, the case is dismissed as default. It is considered innocent since "dismissed in default"can always be restored

Midha J. recalls having "dismissed in default" thinking it is a routine innocent order.

Midha J.: 2 years later, the appeal came before me. Of course, I could not hear, I recused. But while reading the file, I noticed that the person applied for restoration which was dismissed.

Justice Midha: I realised that this "innocent order" (of dismissing for default in appearance) had done damage to a litigant. So I felt very grave pain. In my meditation, I prayed to God that something innocently has gone wrong

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Justice Midha: But one thing which I adopted from that day, I think 2013, I never dismissed any matter in default. Even if a person does not come till 4 o clock, I tell the Courtmaster at 3 to call the lawyer. Even if the counsel is deliberately not coming, Ill force him to come

Justice Midha: I say I'm here to dismiss in default, but it will be on merits. I never proceeded ex parte against anybody since 2013 or so. That changed.. in me. Today I feel, I have done correctly.

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Justice Midha: For a large number of days, I kept feeling the pain that somebody has suffered because of my innocent order. Normally, if we pass a wrong order, we don't get the opportunity to correct ourselves. It is only the appellate court that can correct our orders

Justice Midha: But surprisingly, after a few days, the matter was remanded back to my Bench saying that it should have heard by this Bench only.

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Justice Midha: One time someone asked "have you ever passed a wrong order?" I said "yes, once I passed, but God gave me an opportunity, unlike many others, to correct the order myself."

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Justice Midha: The second practice that I followed was that I never insulted any counsel.

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Justice Midha: Every day, there were many cases where the counsel will not permit me to complete the question. Or they permit and not answer, or answer differently. Many times, their interruptions are grossly interruptive.

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Justice Midha: My approach was that my oath is to do justice whether I get assistance or not, whatever assistance I get.

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Justice Midha: Mr Chandhiok was right. I only hear the counsel and see the litigant behind the counsel. My eyes are not on the counsel, they are only on the litigant, that what is the case of the litigant, what is the requirement of the justice.

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Justice Midha: I still feel, becoming a judge and reaching this position is one thing. But to do the work and to justify the elevation is different.

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Justice Midha: I took judicial work as meditation. In every case, I will see what is the truth. According to me, absolute truth is God only. So the search for truth is the search for God, that one day I will be able to see absolute truth.

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Justice Midha: My inspiration comes from two sources. When I was elevated, Justice Lahoti came to bless me and said 'now you are a trustee of public time, so you will not waste public time.'

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Justice Midha: He (Lahoti J.) said, as a CJI he had an invitation to go to a few countries, which he declined and used the time to write a large number of judgments, which he could not have written

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Justice Midha: He said "today I can visit all those countries with my arbitration practice, but I cannot write a single order."

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Justice Midha: Second inspiration came from former CJI RS Pathak. He said every constitutional judge should in the evening look back whether he just decided a case or added a new brick to the institution of the law. So I tried to put some bricks in the institution #DelhiHighCourt

Justice Midha: In order to follow Justice Lahoti's advice not to waste judicial time, when I was elevated, I stopped looking at television.

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Justice Midha: For more than 13 years I have not seen television. I don't take dinner, I don't read newspapers except seeing the headlines.

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Justice Midha: I have never slept completely, I am still short of sleep for the last 13 years. I hope, from tomorrow onwards, if I have the option, I'll sleep for six months and then wake up afresh.

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Justice Midha speaks of a compliment received from former CJ, Justice AP Shah after Justice Midha's ruling in the Rajesh Tyagi case was affirmed by SC and directed to be applied all over India.

Justice Midha recalls that when he presented a book on the subject to former CJ AP Shah, Justice Midha was told that his elevation has been justified and that he has done in two years what many cannot do for their entire tenure.

Another compliment he recalls came from Justice Muralidhar after perusing a judgment authored by Justice Midha

Justice Midha: He said, 'I am happy after 12 yrs, your passion and excitement continues.' It was the best compliment

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Justice Midha says he is happy for all the love and affection from his colleagues and the bar, which was being aired for the past one month.

Midha J.: Every counsel is appearing after the matter is over, he is blessing me on the screen, which I had never seen earlier.

Justice Midha says he is touched by thanks and blessings expressed today as well.

Certainly, I feel,at a spiritual level, on a better position which I may have not been if I had not come here on this side: Justice Midha

Justice Midha: If anyone I have innocently hurt, I seek forgiveness. If I passed some wrong order, I must take the responsibility for it. But I have never tried to do it consciously.

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Justice Midha: The Bar is the judge of the judges. Today is the judgment day. All of you have given me the marks. I am leaving today. My eyes are wet. All of you have showered so many. blessings, I am very, very grateful.

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Advocate Abhijat: Thank you Justice Midha. Tomorrow on, the Bar wishes you good sleep to your heart's content. May you watch the television, may you read the newspapers, may you relax and lead an even more fruitful life serving society.

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The event has ended after the vote of thanks by Advocate Jatan Singh

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