Granting bail to the three Kashmiri college students held in Agra for 5 months over alleged feedback following an India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match, the Allahabad High Court final week stated it was entertaining the applying immediately, citing “exceptional circumstances”. “It is informed that the Agra District Bar Association passed a resolution for not providing any legal assistance to the applicants… Lawyers have an oath inscribed in their conscience to assist the cause of law… and to serve justice to all those who seek it at all times,” Judge Ajay Bhanot stated.
It is that this creed that Madhuvan Dutt Chaturvedi, a district court docket lawyer from neighboring Mathura, says he swears by. And it’s this that led the lawyer, in his 50s, to take up the case of the three engineering college students, recipients of the PM’s Special Scholarship Scheme for J&Ok college students, when others would not – in addition to of Popular Front of India activist Atiqur Rahman, who was held together with journalist Siddique Kappan and two others on solution to Hathras following the 2019 gangrape incident.
“For me, secularism is not just an emotional or religious aspect,” says Chaturvedi, who runs a small chamber exterior Mathura court docket. “It is about humanity… It is linked to class curiosity. Whenever communal forces grow to be dominant, they stop the upliftment of courses. And it turns into a private and nationwide obligation to make sure that the rights of persons are protected.”
Responding to the High Court’s observations, Dharmendra Kumar Verma, a member of the Agra Bar Association, stated they took the choice to not signify the Kashmiri college students “in the name of national interest”. “We do believe that we have an essential job but there are some times when considerations about the nation have to be made. Our call to not represent the students was in the right sentiment since the country always comes first.”
However, Chaturvedi says, for him the petitioners come first. In the slim lanes lined with attorneys’ workplaces exterior the Mathura court docket, there’s at all times a crowd exterior his chamber. The ‘fariaadis’ (petitioners) say he hardly ever refuses a case, particularly to those that wouldn’t have the means to struggle one. He takes on a case professional bono if the petitioner cannot pay, particularly ladies caught up in marital disputes.
“We have to take into account the background of the person. In some cases, people come from disturbed backgrounds and injustice has been done to them. The idea of giving the right legal help takes precedence, even if it comes out of one’s own pocket,” Chaturvedi says.
He attributes his beliefs to his father, Radhe Shyam Chaubey, who was a freedom fighter and helped arrange the CPI in Mathura within the Nineteen Fifties-60s. The political leaders, writers, poets and artists who dropped in at their home left a deep impression on him, he says. In faculty, he obtained related to the Left and was a part of a number of protests involving employee rights and charge hikes.
One petitioner whom Chaturvedi has represented, Vikas, a resident of Mathura, says, “Two years in the past, my uncle known as police to my mom’s home as a result of she requested for her share within the household property. Everyone objected to a girl going up towards a person for her rights. I discovered myself pitted towards my very own group, even police pushed for a compromise. Madhuvanji lastly took our case.”
Mateen, the brother of Atiqur Rahman, held on his solution to Hathras, says: “When we got here to know of his arrest, we went to Mathura and requested round for a lawyer. Several individuals instructed us that Madhuvanji will have the ability to assist. He has been with us from the start.” When Rahman fell ailing, Chaturvedi filed a number of petitions in court docket to get him transferred to a hospital for pressing remedy.
In such circumstances, typically the lawyer on the opposite aspect is Additional District Counsel, Mathura, Subhash Chaturvedi. Whatever their skilled variations, the federal government counsel says, he has solely respect for Chaturvedi. “He is like an elder brother. There is so much that folks have discovered from him.”
Chaturvedi has confronted private threats and abuse over his circumstances. After he took up the transient for the Kashmiri college students, messages have been posted towards him on native WhatsApp teams, calling him “anti-national”. Just a few years in the past, when Chaturvedi was a part of the authorized crew opposing bail to the VHP’s Sant Yuvraj, who had been arrested for objectionable feedback, the latter’s supporters had assaulted him.
Chaturvedi says he derives the braveness to tackle the threats from revolutionaries who risked their lives in historical past and from his household who stands by him. “There are so many people before me who have done so much. I have always been mentally prepared for any consequence, but my work cannot stop. When my time will come, it will. Till then, there is a lot to be done… I am merely a district court lawyer who also wants to help people.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
