In the past few years, the Supreme Court has been in the forefront of the drive to seal shops and establishments which are allegedly violative of the masterplan, or leading to pollution. Tens of thousands of shops and small businesses got sealed and the livelihood of hundreds of thousand of people have been adversely affected. Facts have recently come to light which show that the highest echelons of the judiciary of the land, which were implementing the “vision” of the big bourgeoisie to turn Delhi into a “world class” metropolis also made a lot of illegal wealth on the side.

The ex- Chief Justice of India, Justice Y.K.Sabharwal, who headed the bench which passed these sealing orders in February 2006, was not even originally in charge of the cases regarding shops and establishments in areas designated as “residential” by the outdated Master Plan of Delhi. He was in fact in charge of a case relating to polluting industries. In March 2005, about eight months before he became the CJI (in November 2005), he asked for the cases relating to implementation of the Master Plan to be put before a Bench under himself.

The two sons of Justice Sabharwal were engaged in small export–import businesses whose registered office were the private residence of Justice Sabharwal in Panjabi Bagh, Delhi. These companies audaciously shifted their registered offices in January 2004 to the official residence of Justice Sabharwal, who was then one of the senior most SC judges! Sure enough, in May 2004, a bench under Justice Sabharwal ordered sealing of properties from which industries had been functioning in residential areas – a strict implementation of which would have meant that his own private residence would have to be sealed had his sons’ companies continued to use it as their registered office. But who could seal the official residence of a senior SC judge?

In October 2004 and thereafter, the sons of Justice Sabharwal developed business partnerships with some of the biggest mall and commercial complex developers of Delhi. By February 2006, when Sabharwal passed his notorious sealing orders which forced shops and small businesses out of “designated residential areas” into shopping malls and posh commercial complexes, his sons were well entrenched in the business of commercial property development. The personal fortunes of Sabharwals’ immediate family sky rocketed – from annual company turn overs of a few lakhs, they grew to crores.

His sons and immediate family members were allotted 3 huge commercial plots totaling 12,000 sq. metres at Noida by the Uttar Pradesh government at a rate of only Rs. 3,700/sq metre, when the market price of commercial land here was at least Rs. 30,000/sq metre at that time! Several other plots in various areas of Noida were also allotted to the companies run by Sabharwals’ sons at throw away prices thereafter. Was it just a coincidence that Justice Sabharwal was instrumental in staying the controversial Amar Singh tapes case?

Among other acquisitions, in March 2007, the Sabharwal sons Chetan and Nitin, purchased a 1150 sq. yard bungalow, in the posh Maharani Bagh locality of New Delhi, for a stated consideration of only Rs.16 crore, whereas its real worth is considerably more! This was so blatantly out of proportion with their earlier known sources of income that the Income Tax department has slapped a notice on Pawan Impex, the company owned by Chetan and Nitin, seeking details of their business activities, accounts, assets, sources of funds etc.

It is thus clear that when Justice Sabharwal passed his orders for sealing of shops and small businesses in February 2006, he was not only implementing the “vision” of the big bourgeoisie, but with their blessings, was also helping his own family get rich quick.

The gay abandon with which Sabharwals’ family fattened their own pockets leaves one wondering if the fig leaf of rectitude with which the judiciary seeks to cover its transgressions and the sword of the law of contempt which hangs over anyone who crosses their path would suffice to deter and deflect the onslaught of the wronged. Indeed the Indian judiciary is bound to be the target of the peoples’ ire as it seeks to implement the vision of the big bourgeoisie while fattening itself.