On a heated noon in June, 2021, a man was standing in a black gown, a white collar and speaking to a room full of people.

“Once a poor farmer came to the court of Mughal Badshah Akbar to complaint of theft. Akbar said, “You have told us everything except what is stolen.” The farmer replied, “Jahanpanah, the well from my agricultural field is stolen.”

Jahanpanah was shocked. “But how can it be?”

The farmer implored, “It has happened, Jahanpanah. Here, I have the certificate granting permission to dig a well from the Talukdar. Here is the certificate of the well been dug properly from the Talukdar and here is the certificate of the Talukdar having tested the water and the Talukdar says, ‘the water is sweet’. “

The farmer continued pulling out papers and said, “If you do not believe me Jahanpanah, I have another certificate from the Talukdar. Construction work done around the well for irrigation and for drawing water, a bucket and a rope have been added. All this proves O Akbar, The Great, that the fund your treasury sanctioned, has been properly utilized, and I do not say that without certification from the Talukdar attesting that.”

“He can produce more I suppose..”, mused Birbal.

“This morning when I went to my field, I did not find my well anywhere in the field. I thought it must have been stolen.””

…

And in Gujarat, 360 toilets worth Rs. 43 lakhs and 20 thousand were stolen.

The person who came praying before the High Court, brought many annexures along. That he filed RTI’s, multiple applications of complaint one after the another because the authorities were very forgetful and kept forgetting the complaint.

The documents were to prove that the petitioner, an agriculturist, climbed all the fruitless steps and is waiting to go to the toilet…

Finally, it is only with the help of pro-bono advocates that he gets the government to answer.

…

In a country where we are made to believe that a man cannot be alive if he is dead on papers, it is heart-warming to see that courtrooms listens to stories and judges can see beyond documents. PIL and Consumer Courts keep that hope alive.

Papers are typed, hand-written, signed and hence a beautiful act of forgery can be passed as an original piece of art with the help of some crispy notes.

But don’t jest in court without taking consent of the judge.

…

Writ Petition No. 58 of 2021

Advocate: Jitendra Malkan