Telangana high court judge does a Modi; picks up used plates, tea cups from court lawn

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s short video of going on a cleanliness drive on Mamallapuram beach in Tamil Nadu on Saturday morning to ensure public places are clean and tidy going viral, a senior judge of Telangana high court undertook the same drive in the court premises on Friday evening.

Justice Challa Kodandaram was attending a function to felicitate a colleague Justice P V Sanjay Kumar who was given an emotional farewell by the advocates’ community on his transfer to the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Before the commencement of the felicitation function, the high court advocates’ association arranged hi-tea for the guests, including judges, senior advocates and the court staff on the court lawns, adjacent to the meeting hall. The guests were served refreshments in paper plates and tea in paper cups.

But in their hurry to get into the hall, many guests threw the used plates and cups on the lawns, instead of dust bins located at a distance.

“Justice Kodandaram noticed the plates and cups strewn all around the lawns and was a little upset. He wondered whether the judicial community would ever know the importance of Swachchata. He was so disturbed that he may pass an order on maintenance of cleanliness in the court premises,” senior advocate and president of Telangana high court bar association Thota Surya Kiran Reddy told HT.

Without wasting time, Kodandaram went around the lawns and started picking up used plates and cups in his hands and dumping them in the dust bins. He even raised “Jai Swachch Bharat” slogans.

“It was an embarrassment to all of us. I quickly joined him in the drive and soon some other advocates also started cleaning the lawns,” Reddy said.

Still, many other guests were just standing and watching the scene while some others were more interested in capturing the scene on their mobile phones, instead of participating in the drive, he said.

An alumnus of Sathya Sai educational institution in Whitefield, Bangalore, Justice Kodandaram is considered to be a man of principles. “On many occasions, he tells the young advocates to be honest and build their own character,” the bar association president said.