MP judge resigns protesting elevation of senior

THE JUDGE HAS CITED MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS FILED AGAINST JUSTICE GUPTA

- Utkarsh Anand

Madhya Pradesh judicial officer Aditi Kumar Sharma, whose dismissal was quashed by the Supreme Court earlier this year, has resigned from service in protest against the elevation of a senior district judge whom she accused of caste-based harassment, abuse of authority and institutional vendetta.

In a strongly-worded resignation letter addressed to the Madhya Pradesh high court chief justice and seen by HT, Sharma said she was stepping down “not because I lost faith in justice, but because justice lost its way inside the very institution sworn to protect it.”

“I leave this institution with no medals, no celebration, and no bitterness ~ only the bitter truth that the judiciary failed me. But worse ~ it failed itself. This letter of resignation is not closure. It is a statement of protest. Let it remain in your archives as a reminder that there once was a woman judge in Madhya Pradesh who gave her all to justice, and was broken by the system that preached it the loudest,” she wrote.

Her resignation comes weeks after the Supreme Court collegium on July 2 recommended the elevation of Rajesh Kumar Gupta, principal district and sessions judge in Ujjain, to Madhya Pradesh high court. The government cleared his name on Monday. Hours later, Sharma put in her papers.