Hearing on Jamia violence in Delhi HC witnesses melody as Solicitor General delivers couplets

Jul 06, 2020

New Delhi [India], July 6 : The hearing on a batch of pleas related to Jamia violence on Monday witnessed a little melody after the petitioner's counsel senior advocate Salman Khurshid told the Delhi High Court about Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's collection of Urdu couplets.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who was appearing for one of the petitioners, told a division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan that Mehta has a good collection of Urdu couplets.
Khurshid, in a lighter vein, urged the court to instruct Mehta to respond to him with a couplet.
Responding to Khurshid, Mehta delivered a 'Sher' by Mirza Ghalib and said "Qasid ke aate aate khat ek aur likh rakhu. Main janta hun kya woh likhange woh jawab me (I can write one more letter before the arrival of the messenger as I know what is going to be written in the letter).
"Like Ghalib, I will also keep my issues for consideration ready since I know what your issues are going to be," Mehta said.
This light exchange of words brought a smile on Chief Justice Patel and he said that it will be good to hear people like them who have knowledge of law and literature.
The High Court was hearing a batch of petitions related to the violence at Jamia Millia University in December last year. The final arguments on the batch of petitions will not be heard by the bench on July 13.
Several protesters and policemen had sustained injuries during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) near the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus on December 15. Some buses were set on fire and some properties were also damaged in the protests.