Justice Sanjay Karol was appointed to the Supreme Court in February this year
Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Karol has written a letter to all the judges of the Patna High Court and lower courts appreciating their support in ensuring Bihar's judicial bodies ran smoothly during the COVID-19 pandemic, sources in the state's judicial services have told NDTV.
Justice Karol became Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in November 2019, just months before the full impact of the Covid pandemic reached India and the lockdown began.
In the letter written last month during the Chhath Puja - Bihar's most important festival - Justice Karol said he is also "a son of the soil of Bihar, for truly, whoever comes to this great state, forever thence, belongs to it - and hence, this figurative return to my judicial family of Bihar."
"In this time of festivities, the community comes together as one cohesive whole to celebrate the right culture and time-honoured traditions of the state. The unity reflected during this time is indeed a reflection of the values of our Constitution under which we are all one people," Justice Karol said in the letter, according to the sources in Bihar's judicial services.
"I shall forever be grateful for the support extended to me by the judicial fraternity in my attempts to enable the state's judicial bodies to adapt to this time's greatest challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic, the onset of which was just a few short months after I became one of you in November 2019," Justice Karol said in the letter.
"Together, we ensured that the doors of the halls of justice were always kept open, even in the fact of the greatest adversity having befallen the world - and for that, I am and shall forever be proud of our efforts," he said.
He asked the judicial officers to keep faith in the Constitution steadfast, recommit to justice, to serving the people, and upholding the ideals enshrined therein.
Justice Karol was appointed to the Supreme Court in February this year, along with Justices Pankaj Mithal, PV Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Manoj Misra. All the five names for the judgeship in the Supreme Court were recommended by the Supreme Court collegium on December 13 last year. The Law Minister cleared the appointments on February 4 this year.