Delhi HC Justice Mendiratta at farewell: Law secy tenure challenging due to centre, state govt differences
Then Principal Secretary (Law), he had locked horns with the AAP government over sanction to prosecute a group of JNU students, including former students’ union leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, in an alleged sedition case.
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Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta As he bid goodbye on Wednesday, Delhi High Court’s Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta recalled his days as the Delhi Principal Secretary (Law), which came with “challenges” owing to the “differences between the Central and state governments”.
Then Principal Secretary (Law), he had locked horns with the AAP government over sanction to prosecute a group of JNU students, including former students’ union leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, in an alleged sedition case.
In January 2019, with the case stalled in court, the Delhi Home department had sent the file to the Law department for opinion. Mendiratta, as Principal Secretary, had sent the file back saying that the Lieutenant Governor was the competent authority in the matter. Then Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot had issued Mendiratta a showcause notice asking why the file was sent back without being brought to his notice.
At a farewell organised by the Delhi High Court Bar Association on Wednesday, Justice Mendiratta said that “the system of appointment of service judges to the HC” requires “a serious relook”, noting that during his tenure, he saw no judge from the judicial services becoming the Chief Justice of a High Court.
“System has to be revisited to ensure selection of service judges at an early age, which would also mean attracting the best talent to join the district judiciary,” he added.
Justice Mendiratta was the first serving judicial officer from DHJS (Delhi Higher Judicial Service) to be appointed as secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice in 2019. He was also the Delhi Joint Secretary (Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs) from 1999 to 2002 and Principal Secretary (Law) from November 2017 until April 2019.
Last September, he had refused to quash summons issued to then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders Atishi, Sushil Kumar Gupta and Manoj Gupta, in a criminal defamation case lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by BJP’s Rajeev Babbar. On Monday, the Delhi High Court held that the statements made by the AAP leaders were prima facie “malicious and defamatory to BJP and specifically to Delhi Pradesh BJP” and goes on to “undermine the trust of the voters in the said party”.
In August 2024, Justice Mendiratta had refused to quash the criminal defamation proceedings in a 2020 complaint filed by a BJP leader against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, observing that the comments “obliquely hurt the Hindu sentiments” and Tharoor’s comments amounted to defamation.
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