I had seen Sadhana as an educationist from a distance as part of an audience. That was many years ago. Fate would conspire with me to see her at close quarters years later. It was Madhavi Divan, who understanding the issues, suggested wisely that only Sadhana could mediate in and resolve a particularly fratricidal litigation.
The Supreme Court agreed and appointed Sadhana as one of the two mediators. It was my first face-to-face encounter with her. She was a pleasant personality. She spoke in a voluble but mellifluous and mildly tremulous voice. She came across as someone, who was forthright, outspoken, full of empathy for parties, not judgmental and with a immutable resolve to settle the matter.
To understand Sadhana one cannot, but see through the lens of the body of her work.
As I watched Sadhana's mediation commence, it gave an insight into how the Supreme Court could go wrong in enabling a settlement. The parties had reached the court due to a particular trigger which formed the substratum of their dispute then. The order explicitly removed the trigger and the substratum from the purview of the mediator. Sadhana was not a person who would mince words. She did not like the order which disabled her power to quickly bring to an end this bouquet of litigation.
Did it deter her? No, she knew she only had to work harder. What should have taken a few days, took 4 1/2 months and hundreds of hours.
It was an education of sorts to watch Sadhana. I saw her immediately win the trust of the two parties and then saw her building trust and bridges between the two parties. She made it clear that she was working, not just for the two parties, but for the future of their children as well. Her work was intense. She spent endless hours encouraging, cajoling, admonishing, foretelling during the mediation and on phone long after the mediation. She was always there to pacify them and quell their anxieties. She was there to give her shoulder for the many tears shed during the mediation. I particularly remember her tell something which I have not forgotten till date. She explained that they could continue their lives with lawyers, scoring a victory in court one day and getting exhilarated and then getting setback and depressed the next. They could forever spend their lives in this meaningless seesaw battle.
One could not, but be full of awe and admiration for Sadhana because all this while she was fighting the emperor of maladies. Nobody in the mediation was even faintly aware of it. I always wondered, in the midst of this intense and very personal war, where did this energy of hers come from? How on earth does this cheerful expression and her friendly demeanor remain constant?
It was really interesting to watch her during mediation sessions, welcome and greet some visiting acquaintance or some lawyer or some friend and enquire about their families. She even knew the names of their children. Mind you, her work and effort was for everyone. She recounted of how Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had volunteered to lend his car for the return of a poor reconciled couple to their old Delhi home. She was philosophically a humanist, a multi culturist at heart and a missionary in spirit.
Each of the four months and 15 odd days were spent most patiently encouraging the parties towards the settlement. I saw the meticulous construction of a settlement so carefully crafted walking on the fragile eggshell egos to inch towards the end of their agonies. I was watching a master at the prime of her art and no judge, no lawyer, no litigant would ever understand the work unless they actually experienced it.
She said something which is again indelibly imprinted in my head. She said, 'in every good settlement both parties feel they lost a little that was the perfect settlement'.
Settlement was finally arrived at after a particularly long session after the night had long fallen. Suddenly, the unexpected happened, some trifles and an intransigent refusal to sign the settlement. I watched with horror as the road map so meticulously constructed, was being torn to shreds. I was concerned about Sadhana and looked at her to assess what she would be feeling. Her face was calm, bereft of any anger and was persuading gently the party to think it over again. It was a life lesson, to maintain a calm in the midst of a storm, to be patient in the face of irrationality and to reason in times of an ego driven harakiri. She finally gently told the parties “perhaps you're not ready this time, but you will come back to me someday when you are actually ready.” These words were spoken with love and affection for the parties, full of empathy for them and their human condition, with that beatific smile of hers. She wished them well and I knew it came from the bottom of her heart.
We went to court and I need to explain this, because I felt the court went wrong for the second time. Shyam Divan made an impassioned plea to the bench of 3 judges to call the parties to the chamber. We were just inches away to end this mayhem, he exhorted, and the trifles could be ironed out under the aegis and persuasive power of the judges. The judge in the middle looked at his co-brothers who shook their head. And in no time, the entire edifice fell apart. I realised that if the judges had any inkling of the blood, sweat and tears that went into the mediation, their perspective would have been very very different.
The only plus point was Sadhana became a good friend. This is a friendship I cherish. I had the opportunity in this short journey of life to meet one of the most remarkable women of our times. We are grateful she touched our lives. I was trying to recollect when did I meet her last. I thought it was a year back. Raju reminded me in the midst of his grief, it was 2 1/2 years back. That will forever be my regret.
May her soul rest in peace and I am sure her work will be remembered and resonate through the corridors of law and mediation for all times to come.
Author is Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. He is the author of “Choosing Hammurabi: Debates on Judicial Appointments” (LexisNexis), “Appointing our Judges: Forging Independence and Accountability” (LexisNexis) and “The Maoist Movement in India: Perspectives and Counter Perspectives” (Routledge). Views are personal.