Bombay HC CJ orders probe into Madhu Dandavate case
Bombay high court Chief Justice Mohit Shah has ordered an inquiry into why the will of the late socialist leader, Madhu Dandavate, has not been certified by high court officials even five years after his death.
The probe was initiated after TOI reported on Saturday that Dandavate's son, Uday, alleged that officials of the testamentary department of the Bombay high court had refused to probate the will because he was unwilling to bribe them. Uday said that the officials were aware of who his father was and also the fact that he had left behind a meager sum.
Madhu Dandavate was the railway minister in Moraji Desai's cabinet and the finance minister in V P Singh's cabinet. A five-time MP from Rajapur in the coastal Konkan belt in Maharshtra, he was known for his honesty and simplicity. Instead of opting for cremation, he had donated his body to JJ hospital.
Uday, who heads a design research consultancy in the US, made a passing mention of his father's will in his article in the current issue of The Radical Humanist. Titled, 'Crisis of character', the piece dwells on how the average Indian has been forced to accept corruption.
The Special Investigating Department (SID), which is the vigilance cell of the high court, began looking into the case on Saturday. Sources said that there was a flurry of activity behind closed doors in the testamentary department on Saturday.
"A clutch of lawyers who only deal with wills have a stranglehold over the department. Their employees had illegally closed the door and were rummaging through the papers on Saturday," said a lawyer on condition of anonymity.
On being questioned by the SID, officials of the testamentary department claimed that Dandavate's will had been probated a month ago. However, on the Internet, the status report says that the will has not been probated because some objections raised by the department have not been cleared. Lawyers say that this could well be a dilatory tactic on the part of the officials.
Sources said that the clutch of lawyers who hold sway over the testamentary department boast that they can get a will probated in a month if the heir is willing to pay them Rs 50,000. Other lawyers who occasionally take up matters relating to wills complain that their case papers are often untraceable.
Uday had said that his lawyer had sent him several hints to be practical and to pay up the bribe. "Ultimately, he stopped taking my calls in the hope that that I would come around and give in to the ground reality," he said.
Lawyers said that this kind of corruption also flourishes in other departments of the high court. "If we do not bribe the officials who check the case papers before placing the petition before the judges, they keep our case pending," said a lawyer.
Asked why no lawyer complained against them, he said, "Who will take on the mafia and ruin his practice? Is there an effective redressal mechanism?"
In fact, the lawyer added that the mafia would treat the Madhu Dandavate case as a trophy and use it to extract money from other honest citizens.
Uday had said that the high court officials demanded a bribe because they know that "the system is not capable of deterring, stopping or punishing them" for their acts of corruption in the temple of justice.
The probe was initiated after TOI reported on Saturday that Dandavate's son, Uday, alleged that officials of the testamentary department of the Bombay high court had refused to probate the will because he was unwilling to bribe them. Uday said that the officials were aware of who his father was and also the fact that he had left behind a meager sum.
Madhu Dandavate was the railway minister in Moraji Desai's cabinet and the finance minister in V P Singh's cabinet. A five-time MP from Rajapur in the coastal Konkan belt in Maharshtra, he was known for his honesty and simplicity. Instead of opting for cremation, he had donated his body to JJ hospital.
Uday, who heads a design research consultancy in the US, made a passing mention of his father's will in his article in the current issue of The Radical Humanist. Titled, 'Crisis of character', the piece dwells on how the average Indian has been forced to accept corruption.
The Special Investigating Department (SID), which is the vigilance cell of the high court, began looking into the case on Saturday. Sources said that there was a flurry of activity behind closed doors in the testamentary department on Saturday.
"A clutch of lawyers who only deal with wills have a stranglehold over the department. Their employees had illegally closed the door and were rummaging through the papers on Saturday," said a lawyer on condition of anonymity.
On being questioned by the SID, officials of the testamentary department claimed that Dandavate's will had been probated a month ago. However, on the Internet, the status report says that the will has not been probated because some objections raised by the department have not been cleared. Lawyers say that this could well be a dilatory tactic on the part of the officials.
Sources said that the clutch of lawyers who hold sway over the testamentary department boast that they can get a will probated in a month if the heir is willing to pay them Rs 50,000. Other lawyers who occasionally take up matters relating to wills complain that their case papers are often untraceable.
Uday had said that his lawyer had sent him several hints to be practical and to pay up the bribe. "Ultimately, he stopped taking my calls in the hope that that I would come around and give in to the ground reality," he said.
Lawyers said that this kind of corruption also flourishes in other departments of the high court. "If we do not bribe the officials who check the case papers before placing the petition before the judges, they keep our case pending," said a lawyer.
Asked why no lawyer complained against them, he said, "Who will take on the mafia and ruin his practice? Is there an effective redressal mechanism?"
In fact, the lawyer added that the mafia would treat the Madhu Dandavate case as a trophy and use it to extract money from other honest citizens.
Uday had said that the high court officials demanded a bribe because they know that "the system is not capable of deterring, stopping or punishing them" for their acts of corruption in the temple of justice.
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