Abuse of any kind of power is a given in our society. Ergo, we will always have the rich man threatening the policeman when caught breaking the law. We will have the lawyer threatening legal action against any shop or establishment that they had a grouse against. And then we have the serial litigators – people who file complaints and suits to air their grievances and to garner some publicity for themselves. Sudhir Kumar Ojha is one such serial litigant.
Sudhir Kumar Ojha is a lawyer based in Muzaffarpur, UP who routinely manages to insinuate himself into the headlines by filing suits and FIRs. These are usually on contentious issues; often on frivolous grounds. Many of these are against high profile celebrities --- because what better way to get one's name in the headlines than to drag a celebrity to court.
In 2013, Ojha expressed displeasure against Sachin Tendulkar being awarded the Bharat Ratna. He had then filed cases against the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other ministers as well as Tendulkar. In his complaint, he charged Tendulkar under IPC sections for cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy and intent to breach the peace. Apparently the sentiments of Ojha and others were hurt that the honour was not conferred on legendary hockey player Dhyanchand.
In 2015, Ojha claimed that he ate Maggi noodles and became sick. So he filed a criminal complaint against Nestle, the manufacturer as well as celebs who endorse the product: Preity Zinta, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit. He filed under IPC sections relating to acts spreading infection, sale of noxious food and drink, cheating and dishonesty.
Also in 2015, Aamir Khan had said that he his wife Kiran Rao felt unsafe in the country because of rising intolerance. This, thought Ojha, amounted to intent to cause a riot, promoting enmity and sedition under the IPC and proceeded to file complaints in the chief judicial magistrate against Khan for, you guessed it – hurting the sentiments of people.
In 2018, Salman Khan and others had FIRs lodged against them because of the name of the production Loveratri. According to Ojha, the name was an insult to the holy festival of Navratri; yet another case or hurt sentiments.
49 public figures including historian Ramchandra Guha and filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen and Anurag Kashyap recently addressed a letter to the Prime Minister. The letter asked that action be taken against the rise of mob lynching in the county. According to Ojha, this was a deliberate attempt to “tarnish the image of the PM and the country”. This amounts to “sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with intent to provoke breach of peace,” he says. The police have booked these 49 public figures for these charges.
Ojha has not restrained himself to just this; opposition leaders have also been on his radar. He has filed suits against Navjot Singh Sidhu for sedition and against Rahul Gandhi for defamation and lowering the image of the county and many others. For a publicity-hungry litigant such as Ojha this is all in a day's work. It costs him very little to file such complaints and keeps his name in the headlines. Of his 745 PILs about 130 cases have been dismissed by the courts by his own addmission.
It is telling however that so many of the complaints filed by Sudhir Kumar Ojha actually find favour with the courts. Instead of being dismissed as a frivolous waste of the court’s time which would be better utilised in dealing with the mountain of pending cases, courts admitted some these matters and issue notices and other directions. The pliancy of our courts and their willingness to toe the official line of the government is worrying in the extreme. It should concern all citizens because courts are meant to act as a check on the exercise of power by those in power.
The most worrying thing of all is the growing number of people who subscribe to the view that speaking about the social evils prevalent around us is worse than the existence of those very evils in our midst. So, while the exploitation of the marginalised, persecution of minorities and crimes against women are undeniable social realities, raising these issues seems to be a no-no. It is bad for the ‘image’ of our country and somehow this is the bigger problem. In other words, pointing out these problems and raising one’s voice against them is a crime... probably because it is much easier to prosecute those who point out problems than to work towards actually eradicating those problems.
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