"You Got Job Through Reservation?" : Patna HC Judge Kicks Up Row With Mocking Comments

A judge of the Patna High Court has kicked up a row with his comments mocking reservation. A video segment from the live-stream of the proceedings of the bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar held on November 23 is viral on social media.

The video relates to the case of a District Land Acquisition Officer of the Bihar Government named Arvind Kumar Bharti. The Court had asked him to appear to explain how he released land acquisition compensation to a party while a partition suit was pending. During the interaction, the Court was informed that the officer had faced suspension earlier in a vigilance trap case.

After adjourning the case to grant time to the parties to file their affidavits, Justice Kumar asked the officer in Hindi, "Bharti ji, reservation par aaye the naukri me kya? (Bhartiji, you got job through reservation?)".

The officer replied in the affirmative. After the officer left the court room, some lawyers in the court room started laughing. "Ab tho huzoor samajhiyega baat (now your lordship will understand the matter)", a lawyer commented.

Another lawyer commented, "do naukri ki barabar to hogiya hoga (he must have made wealth worth two jobs)".

The judge then shook his hands and said "nahi, nahi, yeh sab...kuch nahi hota in logon ka..ye bachara paisa jo kamaya hoga khatam kar diya hoga (No, no, nothing will happen to these people. The poor fellow, whatever he might have earned, he might have finished it)". Many lawyers laughed at the comments made by the judge.

After the video of this exchange became viral, the judge's conduct came under severe criticism in the social media. 

The relevant video is embedded here (watch from around 1.47.28 mark)