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General

Justice M. S. Liberhan - The Judge Behind The Judgement

Aroon Sharma
Dec 2009

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On the very day, Monday, November 23, 2009, the report of Government- appointed One-Man Commission of Inquiry on Babri Masjid demolition (December 6, 1992), chaired by Retired Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, was 'leaked' to, or 'scooped' by, and front-paged by a newspaper headquartered in New Delhi with nine editions -- Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and Vadodra (and no less important a weekly edition from New York), media men, with camera men in tow, knocked at the retired chief justice's residence at Chandigarh, wondering if it was he who had handed over a copy of the report to the enterprising reporter ?

The 71-year goggled, tall, former judge, supporting un-dyed silver hair and moustaches, nattily dressed in deep blue polo neck and dark trousers, looked over his shoulders, glowering: “Get Lost”….”Are you challenging my character ?….Get lost from here !” ; adding “I am not that accessible to the media….I am not that characterless a person that I would leak the report before it is tabled in Parliament” ; lamenting “I am very sad at what the media is doing…..if the report is with the media, then go and find out from where the media got it and who provided the report.” Union Home Minister P.Chidamdaram had already stated in Lok Sabha “No one from his ministry has spoken to any journalist.”

If the Union Home Minister is to believed, his ministry had only one copy. But Bharatiya Janata Party was livid. It's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, Mrs Sushma Swaraj wanted P. Chidambaram to “take responsibility for leaking” the Liberhan Commission report, and “resign”. It was on June 30 this year that the Judge, having had humble beginnings and having risen to the upper most echelons of the judiciary, had submitted the 1029 report, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at 7, Race Course Road in the presence of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. He had taken 17 years, with 48 extensions, (and as reports suggest having sought more, but denied) to complete his findings indicting 68 persons, none at the Centre.

Yet, the report is neither cogent nor conceptually acceptable -- rather contradictory in observations, even replete with grammatical howlers. For example, on page 878, the former President of India, Dr A.P.J. Kalam is referred to as Dr Abdul Kalam Azad. It doesn't begin from the beginning – maintains a studied silence on unlocking of the disputed site and later the 'shilanayas' – both under Rajiv Gandhi's government, besides his launching the campaign for General Elections ( against V.P. Singh's Janata Dal ) in 1989 from no other place but Ayodhya, lacing it with the resounding promise of a 'Ram Rajya'. (I was with the press, even interviewed Rajiv Gandhi aboard Kalka Mail, enroute Lucknow-Ayodhya ).

The report has left none satisfied. The Congress prepared a 13-page 'Action Taken Report', once it was corned by the 'leak'. The BJP wondered how Atal Bihari Vajpayee could be indicted without giving him a chance to defend himself. The Babri Masjid Action Committee too cried foul that the 'report had criticised it too for the demolition'; that non-BJP PMs – Rao, Chandrasekhar, Gowda, Gujral had been exonerated; who was not even present at Ayodhya indicted….It has been done to create chaos.” Shia cleric Kalbe Sadiq said “the timing clearly indicates that some parties plan to communalise afresh.” All-India Muslim Personal Law Board said “UPA, BJP, SP – will now get oxygen and vitiate the atmosphere.”

Let’s meet the judge behind the controversial judgement. Son of an eminent lawyer Chaudhary Bhakhtawar Singh, Manmohan Singh Liberhan was born on November 11, 1938 in a remote village, off Chandigarh. After education at Ambala and Chandigarh, he enrolled at the bar on October 1962, starting practise at the district courts, Ambala. He excelled in civil, revenue, criminal and labour cases, and moved to Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1964. Soon, he was appointed the additional Advocate General; later advocate General of Haryana before being elevated to the Bench as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 11, 1987. He was still the sitting Judge when entrusted with the Ayodhya Commission.

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