Justice Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay (born 10 March 1955, in Bombay) was a Judge at the Bombay High Court and the Allahabad High Court.^[1][2] He is the brother of the chess player Praveen Thipsay.^[3] Among the cases he judged in his career were the Best Bakery case and the Sohrabuddin encounter case. His media statements around these cases were controversial, too.^[4]

Political career

In 2018, Justice Abhay Thipsay, after his retirement, joined the Congress party.^[4][5]

Profile

Brief Overview of Justice Thipsay’s Life and Career

• Enrolled as an ‘Advocate’ on the Rolls of the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa on 5th November, 1979. Thereafter, practiced in various Civil and Criminal Courts at Mumbai. • Appointed as ‘Metropolitan Magistrate’ in the Judicial Service of the State of Maharashtra on 26th August, 1987. • Promoted to the Senior Branch of the Judicial Service as ‘Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’, Mumbai and ‘Additional Chief Judge’, Small Causes Court, Mumbai on 1st September, 1994. • As an ‘Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’, handled complex trials in respect of offences/cases investigated into by C.B.I Appointed as a ‘Judge, Bombay City Civil and Sessions Court’ on 25th March, 1997. In that capacity, handled various types of Civil Suits and Criminal Trials and also did extensive appellate work. • Appointed as a ‘Judge of the Special Court’ under the M.C.O.C. Act, 1999 on 1st September, 2001. In that capacity, handled several trials, which were complex, lengthy and sensitive. • Was appointed as ‘Officer on Special Duty’ by the High Court in August, 2003 to represent the High Court in several Writ Petitions filed in the Supreme Court of India by several Judicial Officers from the State on issues of pay, seniority etc., arising out of implementation of recommendations of ‘Shetty Commission’. This was in addition to the judicial work. • Was appointed as ‘Additional Registrar (Administration )’ on the establishment of the High Court on 01/09/2003. This position was held till the responsibility, of looking after the administration of the ‘Fast Track Courts at Sewree’ was entrusted in October, 2003, in addition to the judicial work. • Was nominated by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Bombay High Court as a Judge to hold re-trial of the ‘Best Bakery Case’ which was transferred from the State of Gujarat. • Appointed as ‘Principal District and Sessions Judge, Jalgaon’ in December, 2007. Elevated to the High Court, Bombay, as “Additional Judge” w.e.f.17th March, 2011. • Shri Thipsay is an internationally rated Chess Player. Shri Thipsay has made a mark in the game of Chess in various different capacities such as ‘Player’, ‘Coach’ and ‘Organizer’. He won the Inter-Collegiate Chess Championship in the year 1975 and won the Bombay Senior Division Championship in the year 1977. He has participated in the National Chess Championship Tournaments on a number of occasions, individually, as also as a member of Maharashtra Team. He has won several prizes in Chess Tournaments at National Level. He has also won prizes in the International Tournaments held in the year 1985, at Singapore and Malaysia. • He was appointed as the official coach of the Indian Womens’ Chess Team and in that capacity accompanied the Indian Womens’ team abroad in International Tournaments including the Chess Olympiad, on five occasions. • He has been conferred with ‘Dadoji Konddev Award’ by the State Government for his work as a ‘Coach’.^[6]

1. Meet Justice Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay, the judge who granted Salman Khan a bail He is promoted from the judicial services and has seen very high-profile criminal trials at very close quarters. For Judge Thipsay it does not matter who the person is, he genuinely practices the rule of law—bail is the rule and jail is the exception,” said a criminal lawyer who has been seeing him in court over several years. A lesser known facet of the 60-year-old judge is that he is an expert chess player and brother of chess grandmaster Pravin Thipsay.^[7]

2. It's not just Salman Khan; 7 accused in assault case get Bombay High Court relief during first hearing of appeal It's not just the rare case, for example that of Bollywood actor Salman Khan, where during the first hearing itself the appeal is admitted, sentence is suspended and bail is granted by the Bombay high court. On May 5, justice Abhay Thipsay admitted an appeal by one Manoj Lohokare and six others who were sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in an attempt to murder case. The judge suspended their sentences and directed their release on bail against a bond of Rs30,000.^[8]

3. Justice Abhay Thipsay: A Daring Judge Un-afraid of Agencies During his tenure he issued orders of the release on bail of dozens of highly educated youths who had been incarcerated for [their fake involvement in] terrorism, Maoist activities and fictitious anti-national activism. He was not concerned with the faith of an individual. What he paid heed to was if an accused was really involved in subversive activities or had just ended up in being implicated by intelligence agencies. MCOCA Judge, G T Qadri, presiding over the Aurangabad Arms haul case in a special MCOCA court held in Arthur Road Jail, said that he was highly impressed by Justice Abhay Thipsay’s fearless adjudications in high profile cases and that from his judgements he had learnt a lot that he enforced during the hearings.^[9]

4. Justice Thipsay Bombay HC Profile^[10]

5. Justice Thipsay Allahabad HC Profile^[11]

6. Transfer of HC Judges Despite Lack of Consent Raises Questions Over Fairness of Collegium After Justice Shakhder from Delhi, Justice Thipsay of the Bombay high court becomes the second senior judge to be transferred to another court just a year before his retirement.^[12]

7. Lower courts need to grant bails to reduce pendency in courts, avoid overcrowding in prisons, say experts Former Bombay high court judge Justice Abhay Thipsay, who began his career first as a magistrate, said, “People are afraid of giving bail. There have been instances where actions have been taken rightly or wrongly on judges for granting bail. There is no reverse example. There is a need to create a reverse fear, whereby a judge needs to answer on why a person is kept under detention for such a long time.” Thipsay said, “Sometimes bail orders are suspected, and it affects the career of the judges. But sometimes, absolutely without any evidence, if a judge keeps on remanding an accused for months together without granting bail to the accused, the high court has to play a role. Also social media brings added pressure these days.”^[13]

8. Interview to Rediff.com, Part 1 – Can a citizen's petition under Article 32 be discouraged?^[14]

9. Interview to Rediff.com, Part 2 – Political executive doesn't want independent judiciary^[15]

10. Didn’t defend Nirav Modi, appeared in UK court as an expert, says ex-HC judge Thipsay Speaking to The Print, Thipsay said he appeared in court as a legal expert and not to defend Modi. Thipsay also rejected the BJP’s bid to link his role in the trial with his Congress membership, saying his decision to make a statement had nothing to do with the party. “My deposition is that of an expert witness, though I was called by the law firm defending Modi… The court has recorded my opinion as that of an expert,” said Thipsay. “And in that capacity, I stated the legal proposition. The UK court is not bound to accept it and can always disregard it.”^[16]

11. Questioning Discharge of High-Profile Accused, Ex-Judge Says Sohrabuddin Case a 'Failure of Justice' Justice Abhay M. Thipsay, a former judge in the Bombay high court, has raised serious questions about the manner in which several high-profile persons have been exonerated in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh-Kauser Bi fake encounter case. He has said such processes signal that witnesses were under pressure. Besides, the “absurd” inconsistencies in the process and evidence of “mischief” all indicate one thing: the “failure of justice and of the justice delivery system”. In an interview to Indian Express, Thipsay, who ruled on four bail applications in the case as a high court judge, said that the Bombay high court should use its powers of revision, even if it does so suo moto. The retired judge said that several aspects of the case are “contrary to common sense”. “These orders need to be scrutinised properly before the appropriate fora, and the High Court should look into it,” he continued. “It is unusual that bail is denied to a number of accused for several years and then the court holds that there is no prima facie case against those accused. Lower level officers are not discharged but senior officers are discharged though the nature of material against them is the same.”^[17][18][19]

12. I got letters during the Best Bakery trial urging me to act – Interview to Mumbai Mirror^[20]

13. International Chess Federation Ranking^[21]

14. Bombay HC judge Thipsay’s transfer raises eyebrows Most lawyers describe Justice Thipsay as a man of ‘impeccable integrity and fearless independence.’ “In contrast to many of the other judges, his mindset is pro-constitution,” said Senior Advocate Vijay Pradhan. Lawyers point to Justice Thipsay’s record of passing controversial orders, many of which, said advocate Yug Chaudhary, have been inconvenient to the government. “He would not hesitate to call a spade a spade, and pass such orders as the case merited, regardless of how unpopular they may be.” Advocate Sudeep Pasbola referred to Justice Thipsay as : “One of those rare judges who judge the accused by evidence, not prejudice.” The unanimous opinion of the lawyers is his transfer is a sad loss for the Bombay High Court and a valuable gain for the Allahabad High Court.^[22]

15. Salman appeal: Legal eagles laud ‘fair and balanced’ Bombay high court judge The appeal, suspension of sentence and bail for Salman Khan may come as too many reliefs in one day for his non-fans, but lawyers and the buzz in the legal corridor on Friday was one where they lauded Justice Abhay Thipsay of being fair and treating the actor as any other convict pursuing his statutory right of appeal. Senior counsel Niteen Pradhan said, “Justice Thipsay is a reasonable and balanced judge. The issues he considered on application of law are debatable and need to be decided in the appeal once and for all.”

Advocate Subash Jadhav said that the bail is a natural consequence once Khan’s appeal was admitted and sentence stayed. “Most common law countries following the adversarial system of criminal jurisprudence are sticklers for procedure and India is no different. In fact, the US, in most states, is known to give bail to convicts on their own cognizance,” said Kothari.

Advocate Vibhav Krishna pointed out that even in the Navjot Singh Sidhu vs State of Punjab road rage case, the Supreme Court had suspended the sentence. Suspension of sentence is not improper, says the SC, under Section 389(1) of Criminal Procedure Code provided that the facts of the case so warrant.^[23]

16. Advisory Board of D.M. Harish School of Law^[24]

17. Ombudsman of NMIMS^[25]

18. Special Court – TORTS The Special Court (Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities) Act, 1992 is established under Section 5 of the Special Court (TORTS), Act, 1992 for speedy trial of offences relating to transactions in securities and disposal of properties of the notified parties attached by the Custodian. The jurisdiction of the Special Court is all over India and sitting Hon'ble Judges of the High Court is nominated as Hon'ble Judge of Special Court, Bombay. Nominated as Hon’ble Judge of Special Court The Special Court by the Chief Justice of the High Court with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of India (section 5 of the Special Court [TORTS] Act, 1992)^[26][27]

19. Court doubts authenticity of judge’s phone tap^[28]

20. MCOCA was violated in dismissed judge’s case^[29]

Controversies

Testification for Nirav Modi

In May 2020, Thipsay was consulted by the lawyers of Nirav Modi, who was contesting his extradition to India at a hearing in Westminster Magistrates Court in London, via video link from India.^[30] Thipsay testified that the charges brought in by the CBI against Nirav Modi — which include criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonestly inducting delivery of property — would not stand up under Indian law.^[31]

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused Thipsay of saving Nirav Modi on behest of the Congress^[32]

References