When Justice Kaul was asked to go back to Kashmir!

Ever heard of lawyers telling a Chief Justice to go back to his homeland? No? But this had happened with Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul who recently  retired as the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court.

In  February 2015, when Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul  was the Chief Justice of Madras High Court,  he was asked by lawyers of Madras to move out of Tamil Nadu and go back to either Delhi or Kashmir, his native place and not to stay put in the Southern State .

Anguished by slogans raised by lawyers even inside the Madras High Court on February 14, 2015, Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had told the lawyers’ fraternity that he was prepared to go back, but was worried about the image of the court.

Times of India in its February 15, 2015 issue had carried a detailed story on this incident. Kashmir Rechords is reproducing the news clipping of that day for the benefit of esteemed readers.

According to the news item, a section of lawyers were `disappointed’  with the choice of candidates for appointment as judges of the court, to which Chief Justice Kaul had told them that he would not work under threat and would not take instructions from anyone on the matter.

The court campus had been witnessing rallies, fasts, dharnas and boycotts during the first week of February 2015 over two issues – one, lawyers were upset with a list of nine names forwarded to the Supreme Court for appointment as judges of the High Court; two, law students and sections of lawyers were up in arms against the proposal to shift a Law College.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (born 26 December 1958) is now a former judge who served as a judge of the Supreme Court of India since 2017 until upon his retirement in 2023. He also served as the first Puisne Judge, the senior-most after the Chief Justice of India. In addition, he has been the ex officio executive chairperson of National Legal Services Authority.

A Native of Srinagar

A native of Srinagar, Sanjay Kishan Kaul was born on 26 December 1958 to a Kashmiri Pandit family. His great-great-grandfather, Suraj Kishan Kaul, was the Revenue Minister in the Regency Council of the then Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. His great-grandfather, Sir Daya Kishan Kaul, was a statesman and diplomat who served as the Finance Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. His grandfather, Raja Upinder Kishen Kaul, had a distinguished career in public service.  Justice Kaul’s brother, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, was also a judge of the Delhi High court.

He had his earlier schooling from New Delhi. Later, Justice Kaul graduated in Economics (Hons.) from Delhi University, studying in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He then studied law from University of Delhi.

Before his retirement and as a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court that upheld the abrogation of Article 370 on December 11, 2023, Justice Kaul had recommended setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, along similar lines as in South Africa, to look into human rights violations by both state and non-state actors in J&K.