Dear friends,
Something has gone terribly wrong. And there is a wide communication gap. Let's get over it ASAP.
Undoubtedly the Original WPs were filed by KML & a few others in their personal capacity and pursued the same vigorously till Justice Bhandari delivered a decisive Judgement dated 12.01.2010. Thereafter with the tacit consent of Mr Asthana, thousands of Pensioners all over the country 'owned' the litigation as the matter was travelling back and forth up to Supreme Court of India. This, across Associations and despite some other 'leaders' expressing reservations. Obviously because the going was good.
Now, the Order dated 13.02.2014 staring at us and the covering mail dated 18.02.2014 of Mr Asthana warrant all concerned to examine the matter very closely and decide on 'what next'.
Irrespective of how Mr Asthana interprets the Order and notwithstanding his denial of any prayer to withdraw, one has to go by the Order which is in black and white. Without any blame on anybody, all of us have to now think of how to support him in undoing the damage and move forward. I have some views.
1. If Mr Asthana can confidently and emphatically claim that he never prayed for permission to withdraw his Petitions, he can go back and approach the Court through his Senior Advocate (backed by an Affidavit) and seek 'Recall' of the Order dated 13/02/2014 and 'Restoration' of the CCP No 760 of 2010. This shall be well within law and procedure.
2. If, for any reason, including possible embarrassment to himself, Mr Asthana does not wish to do so, he has the right anyway to move a fresh Petition before Justice Chauhan (approaching Justice Bhandari is a weird idea - it is always the Court and not an individual person of a Judge that decides cases) and pray for clarifying the Order dated 12/01/2010 as we have been interpreting it and also hold LIC guilty of contempt. There are after all, solid grounds to support such a prayer.
3. Read the concluding part of the first paragraph of the Order dated 13/02/2014 carefully. It refers to the Order dated 12/01/2010 as the Order passed by this Court.
We do have a way out. Although the systems and the judicial processes in our country generally suffer from debatable deficiencies, none of them would ever deny 'Justice' where it is due. In a crucial case like ours, strategy is as important as the strength in the case. Let's move forward.
Thanks and regards,
M. Sreenivasa Murty
RM (Legal) & Law Officer, SCZ (Retd)