Madhya Pradesh: While bar and bench kiss and make up, dry days loom

A written apology ahead of Republic Day resolved the tension that had been simmering between the bar and the bench since December 2024. Suresh Kumar Kait, chief justice of the Jabalpur High Court, agreed to attend the Republic Day event organised by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Bar Association (HCBA). A longstanding tradition, it would have been awkward if the CJ had stuck to his resolve not to attend, explained HCBA president Dhanya Kumar Jain.

It all started with Jain writing a letter to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal among others, accusing Justice Kait of having ordered the demolition of a Hanuman temple within his official residence in Jabalpur. Jain had demanded an inquiry and suitable steps.

In his letter of apology, dated 25 January, Jain wrote, ‘Upon reflection, I realised that my letter may have caused confusion, for which I am deeply regretful. I sincerely apologise to the honorable Chief Justice and express my utmost respect towards him. I assure you that I will not repeat such actions in the future. I do not wish for any action to be taken on my previous applications.’

He said he had made the allegation ‘without any proof’ and referred to the rejoinder swiftly issued by the registrar-general refuting the existence of any such temple. Admitting that even the state public works department (PWD) had ‘confirmed that no mandir has ever been present at the residence of the hon’ble Chief Justice’, Jain sheepishly defended himself by saying he was asked to follow up on a complaint received from a member of the bar.

The fabricated allegation was first raised by advocate Ravindra Nath Tripathi after Justice Kait pulled up the state for allowing religious structures to come up inside police stations.

A PIL filed by another Jabalpur advocate claimed that of the 1,259 police stations in Madhya Pradesh, over 800 had religious structures on their premises. The petitioner argued that it constituted misuse of government property and was a violation of constitutional values. Police stations being public spaces, the petition argued, religious structures could not be hosted there.

A bench presided over by Justice Kait ordered a status quo to be maintained in the first hearing on 5 November 2024, when it served a notice on the state government. Dissatisfied with the reply of the state at the second hearing on 17 December, the bench reprimanded the government and asked for an explanation on the failure to remove such structures.

At the third hearing on 9 January 2025, the bench disposed of the case on procedural grounds, pointing out that a contempt petition in a similar case dating back to 2005 with similar prayers has been pending in the court since 2014. The petitioner was free to club the current petition with the pending contempt petition.

“It came as a shock,” said Satish Verma, one of the lawyers representing the petitioner. “I filed a case in 2005 to remove 32 religious structures built on public properties which are creating hurdles in the development of Jabalpur city. In 2013, the high court asked the district administration to abide by the order within three months. When the administration failed to comply with the order, I filed a contempt petition in 2014 which has been pending ever since.”

As the earlier petition was limited to Jabalpur, a fresh petition to cover the entire state has been filed, Verma added. Between 17 December and 9 January, what happened to alter the court’s stand?

Some suspect that Justice Kait was advised by the Supreme Court to be more tactful after the Madhya Pradesh HCBA wrote to the CJI demanding that he be recused or removed altogether.

Prohibition in temple towns

Over two decades, the BJP government has been attempting to impose prohibition in the state, and now they seem to be getting there. On 24 January, the state cabinet announced a liquor ban across 19 temple towns including Ujjain, Mandsaur, Chitrakoot, Maheshwar, Omkareshwar, Orchha, Amarkantak and Maihar, as well as a few panchayats with religious significance for Hindus.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav piously declared, “Alcohol is a social evil that causes problems in the family and society.” The drive to eradicate this ‘social evil’ is estimated to cost the government a revenue loss of Rs 400 crore. The excise department has been asked to compensate by raising the annual fee for ‘composite liquor shops’ — selling both desi and IMFL — by 20 per cent. There are 3,601 composite liquor shops in the state and the anticipated revenue this year is pegged at around Rs 14,000 crore.

How will the ban, which kicks in on April Fools’ Day, affect devotees at the Kal Bhairav Temple in Ujjain, where liquor is intrinsic to the traditional offering? So much so that government-run outlets would sell licit liquor to save people from unholy swindles. “Even during the Simhastha festival in 2016,” recalled the chief minister, “alcohol was offered to the deity.”

Uma Bharti had tried to ban both liquor and the sale of non-vegetarian food and meat in the temple towns of MP way back in 2004. It was never enforced because of resistance from several communities including Hindus who worship Kali and Durga. It was in 2018, almost a decade-and-a-half later, that Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweaked the excise policy to ban the sale and consumption of liquor within 5 km of the Narmada river.

Chouhan also shut down the aahatas, the space adjoining liquor vends where customers would sit and drink. While Bharti is convinced that the latest announcement is a precursor to total prohibition, observers are not so sure. Had the state government been serious, why would it announce the ban while simultaneously squeezing liquor dealers for more revenue?

Allowing different liquor mafias to rule different districts or regions seems unlikely at the moment. A liquor contractor claimed, “Half the shops this year are in the red. The government increased the licence fee by 15 per cent last year, by 10 per cent the year before that, and now it is pushing for a 20 per cent jump. This is an unrealistic approach.”

Paradoxically, while the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is pretending to eradicate the social evil of liquor consumption, the BJP government in Gujarat has persistently turned a blind eye to the thriving trade of smuggling liquor into Gujarat from MP.

An investigation by Reporters’ Collective into this inter-state operation has led to a PIL being filed at the Indore bench of the MP High Court praying for curbs on bootlegging in border towns like Jhabua, Alirajpur and Dhar. Will this, too, go down the hatch?