15 July 2022
To
The Attorney General of India
Dear Attorney General,
We, a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services, who have come together as the Constitutional Conduct Group and are committed to the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution are deeply disturbed by recent events which strike at the very root of fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Indian Constitutions to its citizens.
We specifically refer to the continued detention and deprivation of personal civil liberties of Mohammed Zubair on charges that would not stand the barest of legal scrutiny. You would have read the comprehensive article written on this case by none other than Justice Madan B Lokur, retired judge of the Supreme Court, which clearly spells out the wrong application of law by the police as well as the judiciary.
We have been watching with dismay the cynical overzealousness of not just the law enforcement agencies but also the law officers under you to manufacture cases day after day to deliberately deprive individuals, identified as inconvenient by the Government, of their basic freedoms. As votaries of the Constitutional precept of equality before the law, it is deeply disturbing to see the patently discriminatory treatment meted out as between a Nupur Sharma and a Mohammed Zubair. Such selective application of law flies in the face of justice as we understand it.
No doubt, we need not remind you of your bounden duty to uphold and protect the Constitution and the personal liberties of its citizens from arbitrary and illegal action. We note that you, personally, have an unblemished and outstanding record of over half a century and therefore we have high expectations that you will step in against such flagrant violations of the law on the part of law enforcement agencies as well as subordinate courts. We call upon you to advise the government to issue a directive to the police authorities to stop any further witch hunt against citizens exercising their right to free speech and ensure that no baseless cases are filed in the future as also to instruct government advocates not to routinely oppose applications for bail. The Supreme Court in a recent ruling has stated that indiscriminately arresting people and putting them in jail is making India a ‘police state’. We are at a loss to understand why the Solicitor General takes it upon himself to appear in all kinds of cases even to oppose bail.
As the highest law officer of this land, having earned the respect of so many across the legal and political fraternities as also the discerning public, we feel you have an obligation to rectify the situation. If this moral imperative is left unheeded, we fear that there will be disastrous consequences for the country. We do hope that you will act swiftly to provide our people the freedom that our democracy is expected to sustain.
We intend to release this letter to the media after a period of 24 hours.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Yours faithfully,
Constitutional Conduct Group
(72 signatories, as below)
| 1. | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 2. | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 3. | Chandrashekar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 4. | Rana Banerji | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 5. | Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 6. | Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 7. | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 8. | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 9. | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 10. | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 11. | Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 12. | Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab |
| 13. | F.T.R. Colaso | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 14. | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 15. | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 16. | Nitin Desai | Former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| 17. | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 18. | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 19. | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 20. | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 21. | S.K. Guha | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI |
| 22. | H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab |
| 23. | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 24. | Wajahat Habibullah | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI and former Chief Information Commissioner |
| 25. | Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 26. | Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 27. | Ish Kumar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission |
| 28. | Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal |
| 29. | Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI |
| 30. | B.B. Mahajan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI |
| 31. | Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 32. | Lalit Mathur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI |
| 33. | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 34. | Sunil Mitra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 35. | Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim |
| 36. | Satya Narayan Mohanty | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 37. | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 38. | Gautam Mukhopadhaya | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar |
| 39. | Nagalsamy | IA&AS (Retd.) | Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala |
| 40. | Sobha Nambisan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka |
| 41. | Surendra Nath | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 42. | P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh |
| 43. | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 44. | Maxwell Pereira | IPS (Retd.) | Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi |
| 45. | G.K. Pillai | IAS (Retd.) | Former Home Secretary, GoI |
| 46. | Gurnihal Singh Pirzada | IAS (Resigned) | Former MD, Punjab State Electronic Development & Production Corporation, Govt. of Punjab |
| 47. | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 48. | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 49. | M.Y. Rao | IAS (Retd.) | |
| 50. | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 51. | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 52. | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 53. | A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal |
| 54. | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 55. | S. Satyabhama | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI |
| 56. | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 57. | A. Selvaraj | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI |
| 58. | Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 59. | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 60. | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 61. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFoS (Retd.) | Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 62. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 63. | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 64. | Mukteshwar Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission |
| 65. | Tara Ajai Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka |
| 66. | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 67. | Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission |
| 68. | Anup Thakur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission |
| 69. | P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 70. | Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 71. | Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 72. | Rudi Warjri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica |
