It’s a real life incident which took place in a city of Jharkhand in Dhanbad where a district and session judge sri Uttam Anand was cold bloodedly murdered. On July 28th Judge uttam anand went for a morning walk, never to return home. He was killed in a road accident after a three-wheeler/ auto-rickshaw rammed him while he was walking on the edge of the road. The CCTV footage which was discovered later revealed that it was a deliberate attempt to injure or kill him. Apparently at the time of his death, Anandji was hearing the case of Ranjay singh a close aid to MLA Sanjeev singh. He had also rejected the bail plea of Abhinav Singh and Ravi Thakur, members of a gang headed by Aman Singh who is under arrest.
Judge Uttam Anand started his education from St. Xavier’s school, Hazaribaug and completed his law from campus law centre, Faculty of Delhi. Judge Uttam Anand was a very soft-spoken man who showed concerned for litigants, he was know for that in the legal circle. He majorly dealt with issues like cases of accident compensation, heinous crimes, and used to take an empathetic view towards the victims in many cases. In an interview with Advocate Abdul Kalam Rashidi, who is also a member of the state bar council asserted that judge Uttam Anand had the judicial courage to face everything, primarily his main concern was to deliver justice and he had no enimity with anyone. He was recognized as a noble gem in the law field.
Mohammed Kasim a retired principal district and sessions judge from Jharkhand who served with judge Anand, also underscored the necessity to strengthen the security for judicial officers in district and subordinate courts. He believes it is necessary to revisit the issue of providing an adequate security to judicial officers . Former chief justice of Allahbad High Court, Justice Govind Mathur was also of the view that the parliament should look into this matter, on the issue of providing security to the judicial officers and even lawyers who are directly facing threats. In his words “This is a peak and killing of a judge is the boiling point that demands severe action”. In the last few years the offenders `and individuals or the group of people who put up illegal activities and consider the rule of law a hurdle are pressurizing the justice delivery system and the main concern is that, why is parliament not taking any action against it? What really needed is that a urgent discourse of systematic reform and increasing the security at trial courts, both for judges and lawyers.
A judicial magistrate serving in Delhi also reflected similar thoughts, stating that there is a crucial need to beef up the security provided to judges, as she herself feels the difficulties while driving back home. In a city like Delhi judges handle many remand cases and in situations some accused are high profile criminal which maximizes the difficulty faced by the judges and lawyers. There is only one (thanedar) officer in the court premises which is a grave concern, apart from that every judge or a lawyer is on their own.
Many attacks on Judges, Lawyers, witnesses led by the criminal offenders are grave concern for the judicial system and in turn the democracy of India. There is a crucial need for the parliament to take this accident seriously, and begin a urgent reform in providing a strong judicial system. The killing of Judge Uttam Anand was definitelty an eye opener for the supreme court to take action against it. Even though the supreme court had declined to examine the incidents of Judge Uttam Anand’s case, CJI Ramana, the Supreme court took suo moto cognizance and registered a case regarding the safety of judges on july 30. The case was listed before NV Ramana and Surya Kant, which directed the chief secretary and director general of police of Jharkhand to submit a status report on the investigation into the death of Judge Anand. To sum up everything stated so far we conclude the necessity of such a reform that could bring a positive change for the judicial officers who provides justice by risking their own life and bringing us closer towards a utopian society.
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