Saturday 13 September 2014

Obey your wives

I used to joke a lot in Court when I was a Judge.

One day when I was in the Supreme Court a case came before me of a husband whose divorce matter had been going on for several years, maybe for 10-15 years, from the trial Court to the High Court, and ultimately in the Supreme Court.

 I told him " Zindagi mein khush rehne ka ek hi tareeqa hai ki jo bibi kahe usey maano. Tumne bibi se jhagda kiya, aur uska anjaam hai ki barson se bhugat rahe ho aur Court kuchehri ke chakkar lagaa rahe ho " ( There is only one way of happiness in life, and that is to do whatever your wife says. You quarreled with your wife, and the result is that you are miserable and running around the courts for years ).

 Of course I said this half in jest, but the consequence was that the T.V. channels and the newspapers started publicizing this widely. I received many telephone calls from people I know, including High Court Judges, saying that because of my remark their wives are not listening to them, saying that it is a Supreme Court ruling ! One senior lawyer, Mr. Nagendra Rai, said in my Court before he began his arguments " Aapne ghar mein jhagda karwa diya " ( i.e. I have caused big quarrels in many homes).

I never knew a joke could create such a furore !

3 comments:

  1. Dear Justice Katju,

    It is not right to joke about somebody's misery. Actually it is bad manners.

    When the British embassy hosted a White house burning party, the Americans did not take it lightly. The British embassy was forced to apologize.

    http://rt.com/usa/182684-british-embassy-white-house/


    Regards,
    Prakash

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ephesians 5:21-33

    Wives and Husbands.
    21
    * Be subordinate to one anotherq out of reverence for Christ.*
    22
    Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.r
    23
    For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.s
    24
    As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
    25
    Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for hert
    26
    to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,u
    27
    that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.v
    28
    So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
    29
    For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church,
    30
    because we are members of his body.w
    31
    “For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother
    and be joined to his wife,
    and the two shall become one flesh.”x
    32
    This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.y
    33
    In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

    ReplyDelete
  3. After pursuing justice in most civil manner if a citizen learns that
    the judge that too a suprim court judge iss making jokes out of his plight, he is entitled to think badly about indian justice system.

    This automatically tells me that the cases are pending in indian courts for so long because judges are mostly doing time pass and joking on others griefs.

    ReplyDelete