Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Career

Sabharwal worked as an advocate

Advocate

An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...

for Indian Railways

Indian Railways

Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....

from 1969 to 1981, as an advocate for Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

administration from 1973 to 1976-1977, later as Additional Standing Counsel and then as Standing Counsel. He also served as Counsel to the Central Government from 1980 to 1986. He represented Delhi in the Bar Council of India

Bar Council of India

The Bar Council of India is a statutory body that regulates and represents the Indian bar. It was created by Parliament under the Advocates Act, 1961. It prescribes standards of professional conduct and etiquette and exercises disciplinary jurisdiction...

from 1969 to 1973.

He became an Additional Judge in the Delhi High Court

Delhi High Court

The High Court of Delhi was established on 31 October 1966. The High Court of Delhi was established with four judges. They were Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. K. Kapur.-History:...

on November 17, 1986 and a judge soon after.

On February 3, 1999, he was appointed as Chief Justice

Chief Justice

The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...

of Bombay High Court

Bombay High Court

Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...

. In less than a year, he was appointed as a judge, Supreme Court of India

Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...

.

Being the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court of India

Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...

at the time, Sabharwal was appointed as the Chief Justice of India to succeed Mr. R.C. Lahoti who was retiring on October 31, 2005. He was sworn in as the Chief Justice by the President of India

President of India

The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...

, A P J Abdul Kalam on November 1, 2005 for a period of about 14 months as he would turn 65, the retirement age for Chief Justices, on January 14, 2007.

Significant judgements

As a judge of the Supreme Court, he delivered several important judgements dealing with constitutional matters.

A constitutional bench headed by Justice Sabharwal in October 2005 held as unconstitutional the dissolution of Bihar assembly on the basis of the report of Governor Buta Singh but refused to revert the action, thereby paving way for fresh elections.
He headed the bench which refused to grant any relief in the 2006 Delhi sealing drive
2006 Delhi sealing drive
The 2006 Delhi sealing drive was a campaign by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to close a number of illegal commercial establishments in Delhi, India which are running in residential areas without authorization. The drive witnessed considerable opposition from trading bodies in the city which...

in which thousands of illegal constructions were demolished across Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

. This became controversial after it was later found that his two sons were connected with the real estate business in Delhi.
In 2007, he headed a nine judge constitution bench which ruled that all laws placed under the ninth schedule after April 24, 1973, shall be open to be challenged in court if they violate the fundamental rights
Fundamental Rights in India
'Part III - Fundamental Rights' is a charter of rights contained in the Constitution of India. It guarantees civil liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace and harmony as citizens of India...

guaranteed under Article 14, 19, 20 and 21 of the Constitution. This judgment was made in response to a number of petitions made on various laws including the Tamil Nadu Reservation Act, 1994.

Allegations of Real Estate Operations by his sons

During the 2006 Delhi sealing drive

2006 Delhi sealing drive

The 2006 Delhi sealing drive was a campaign by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to close a number of illegal commercial establishments in Delhi, India which are running in residential areas without authorization. The drive witnessed considerable opposition from trading bodies in the city which...

, the Supreme Court under Sabharwal demonstrated extraordinary zeal in demolishing a slarge number of commercial properties which were illegally running in residential areas. There were very extensive protests every day, and considerable political pressure, due to which demolitions would often be hindered. The court monitored events and regularly reprimanded the Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Municipal Corporation of Delhi

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is a municipal corporation, an autonomous body that governs 9 Districts of Delhi, in the state of Delhi, India. It is one of three municipal corporations in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the others being New Delhi Municipal Council, and Delhi...

for its tardy progress. As a consequence of the extensive bulldozing of buildings, legal commercial properties, as in the new shopping mall

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

s, rose dramatically in price. Particularly, luxury store owners and other upscale businesses were very keen to get into the limited mall floor space.

In May 2007, five months after Sabharwal retired from the bench, the afternoon newspaper Mid-Day

Mid-day

Mid Day is an afternoon daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages are published in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune .-Establishment:...

brought out a series of articles that presented documents showing that YK Sabharwal's sons, Chetan and Nitin Sabharwal, owned at least four small ventures, most of them oriented towards garment exports, but one in the construction arena. During Sabharwal's tenure as Chief justice, two of these firms suddenly attracted the interest of the very largest players in the shopping mall

Shopping mall

industry.

The first firm, Pawan Impex, Pvt Ltd, was registered for some time at Justice Sabharwal's official bungalow in the heart of Delhi, and later at his private house. Having the firm registered at his government-furnished house may have been illegal. In a newspaper editorial on Sept 2, 2007, Justice Sabharwal has said that he asked his sons to shift the registered address as soon as he found out about it, but in an interview recorded by Mid-Day in April 2007, after the shift, he claims complete ignorance about the matter.

More damaging is the fact that Pawan Impex, which had remained with a capitalization of 0.1 million Rs.

Rupee

The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...

since its founding in 2002, suddenly attracted the interest of Kabul and Anjali Chawla, owners of the large and rapidly growing real estate firm Business Park Town Planners (BPTP) which had promoted large malls like Park Centra (Gurgaon

Gurgaon

Gurgaon is the second largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of national capital New Delhi, about 10 kilometers from Dwarka Sub City and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital...

), Next Door (Faridabad

Faridabad

Faridabad is a city in the south-east of Haryana state in northern India, in Faridabad district. It lies at 28º 25' 16" N Latitude and 77º 18' 28" E Longitude. The district shares its boundaries with the National Capital and Union Territory of Delhi to its north, Gurgaon district to the west and...

), and the Parklands Shop-In Park (North Delhi

Delhi

). In June 2006, at the peak of the Supreme Court interest in the 2006 Delhi sealing drive

2006 Delhi sealing drive

, the Chawla's invested in Park Impex, raising the Share Capital 300 fold to Rs. 30 million, with equal shares between the original promoters and the Chawlas. Two months later, in August, the company obtained a loan of Rs. 280 million by a bank which happens to be a tenant of a BPTP property. These allegations appear to be well documented in a set of papers released by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and were not addressed in Justice Sabharwal's public response, though he did mention that his sons were creating an IT Mall. After the partnership with BPTP in June 2007 Pawan Impex purchased 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) of land in NOIDA

Noida

Noida , short for the New Okhla Industrial Development Area, is an area in India under the management of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority . Noida came into administrative existence on 17 April 1976 and celebrates 17 April as "Noida Day". It was set up as part of an urbanization...

on which this IT Mall is being constructed; Mid-Day reports it to be a Rs. 560 million project with 300000 sq ft (27,870.9 m²). saleable floor area.

A second firm, Harpawan Constructors, equally unknown, had also been promoted by the brothers. In October 2005, the promoters of Filatex India

Filatex India

Filatex India Limited is an Indian textile firm primarily manufacturing several grades of polyester yarn. It also has interests in real estate and shopping malls. It had a turnover of Rs...

, a polyester yarn

Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...

firm with a turnover of Rs. 3 billion in FY 2007, Purshottam and Madhu Sudan Bhageria, also the owners of real estate firm Fargo Estates, invested in Harpawan. Subsequently, the Bhagerias announced plans for developing the Square One, a mall devoted to luxury brands in Delhi. Justice Sabharwal has said that Purshottam Bhageria was his son's childhood friend, and that Harparwan Construction, despite its name, has not made any real estate or other investments.

The business of Chetan and Nitin expanded dramatically after 2005. Besides setting up several garment manufacturing factories, they have embarked on a massive real estate programme in NOIDA

Noida

.

Possibly the largest project for Pawan Impex is the Rs. 560 million IT Mall being constructed in Noida. In the application to construct this mall, they had given the turnover and business of their company as "Nil". Their application for constructing this mall was approved rather mysteriously, given that in the application they had declared their company to be "Nil turnover" and "Nil business". An earlier applicant, Softedge Solutions, had been rejected on the ground that they could not satisfactorily answer questions about their previous experience in IT and their technical tie up. But Pawan Impex represented by Chetan Sabharwal with Nil business, no previous track record in IT and no technical tie up, managed to obtain permission.

Conflict of Interest charges

Whatever the facts of the case, it is widely felt that Justice Sabharwal's being active in such decisions when his sons were even partly involved in the Delhi real estate business lacked propriety, and that he should have recused himself from these cases.
To the contrary, the Outlook (magazine)

Outlook (magazine)

Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...

printed a report claiming that
he had "called for and dealt with the sealing of commercial property cases in March 2005, though it was not assigned to him.".

The actions have been condemned as being at best improper and at worst an attempt "to benefit his sons who entered into partnerships with shopping malls and developers of commercial complexes". Former Solicitor General KK Sud called this behaviour "the height of indiscretion."

In terms of the content of the charges, the most damaging aspect is the participation
of the shopping mall construction giant BPTP in his son's export-import business. Both the Chawla's were on the board of the firm by early 2005, around the same time that Sabharwal started taking
interest in the demolition drive.
What is surprising is that while Justice Sabharwal in his justification addresses the other two (lesser) charges in some detail, but
he is completely silent about the BPTP connection.

Jail term for two Journalists, cartoonist, publisher

In September 2007, four Mid-Day journalists were sentenced to prison by the Delhi High Court

Delhi High Court

for contempt of court (making such allegations about an ex-judge).
The scribes said: "We stated facts in our stories. (in the articles relating to former Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal) and that is why we should not be hauled up for contempt. The laws in the country are outdated." The contempt laws in India do not rely on truth as the primary test for judging contempt. The columns were also somewhat tongue-in-cheek, accompanied also by a cartoon (the cartoonist has also been sentenced to four months in jail).

Justice R S Sodhi and Justice B N Chaturvedi of the Delhi High Court, in their judgement, said: "We feel, in this peculiar case, the contemnors have tarnished the image of the highest court and the sentence of four months' imprisonment would serve the justice."
M K Tayal, senior journalist, said, "The judges did not go into the merits of the argument. They did not apply their minds while delivering the judgement.". "The Supreme Court in its judgement has clearly laid down the Laxman Rekha which we feel the publications have crossed." (The Laxman
Lakshmana
Lakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...

Rekha is a Ramayanic reference to a line that should not be crossed). However, the defendants had already processed their bail requests from the Supreme Court, and they were immediately released on bail. Tayal and three others are no more associated with Mid Day. It appears that the management of the newspaper compromised with Sabharwal and BPTP. Tayal, a former Indian army officer, objected Mid Day's policy of refraining from exposing more about the dealings of ex-CJI. Mid Day's MD Tariq Answari had written a note regarding the newspaper not carrying any more article on Sabharwal.

About the judgement, ex-law minister Shanti Bhushan

Shanti Bhushan

Shanti Bhushan in Allahabad, United Provinces is a former Law Minister of India at Ministry of Law and Justice in the Morarji Desai Ministry and also a senior advocate...

stated that Parliament had in 2006 amended the Contempt of Courts Act to say that "if the allegations against a judge were found to be true, then they would not be considered contemptuous". In view of this, the judgement, he said, may be "only aimed at terrifying the media and an attempt to curb truthfulness."

In any event, the decision of four months imprisonment for the reporters, without establishing the falsity of the reportage, has only brought the matter into far more intense public scrutiny.

External links

Short Biography on the Supreme Court of India website
Arundhati Roy's article in Outlook about the scandal
"Justice Y K Sabharwal sworn in as CJI" - rediff.com
Rediff.com
Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....

article dated November 1, 2005
Landmark judgment on the 9th Schedule exclusion from judicial review
"Justice Sabharwal and injustice article by Mid Day "
" Justice Sabharwal and It All Squares Up " (Sept 2007: these Mid-Day articles have been removed from their website. However, some of them remain available at http://www.judicialreforms.org/justice_yk_sabharwal.htm)
" Justice Sabharwal and Mall-aa-Mall with BPTP "
" Justice Sabharwal and Square One Mall "
" Justice Sabharwal and Lift Kara De "
" Justice Sabharwal and sealing drive - Shock, Anger at Sahbarwal's Mall- aa-Mall "

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