New Delhi, July 6 A serious hearing before the Delhi High Court was punctuated by a rare instance of poetic brilliance when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta turned "shaayar" (poet) and took refuge in a couplet by famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib on Monday.
"Qasid ke aate aate khat ek aur likh rakhoon. Main janta hun jo woh likhenge jawab mein (I can write another letter before the arrival of the postman as I am aware of the response it will be fetching)," recited Mehta while the court was hearing a batch of matters relating to the violence that broke out in and around Jamia Millia Islamia last year.
A Division Bench presided by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan was hearing the matter through video conferencing.
Mehta quoted Ghalib after senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that the solicitor General is big fan of Urdu poetry and has an immense collection of the same. It was a rare a light moment when Khurshid made the gesture and Mehta obliged.
The Solicitor General also said: "Just like Ghalib, I will keep my issues for the consideration of this court concise and short."
During the course of the hearing, Mehta also raised objections over some statements made in the petitions and told the Delhi High Court that such statements are "more of a political nature which are being made at a protest site" and "not a pleading before a court".
The objections were raised over the allegations in one of the petitions which stated that "the Home minister directed that you (police) mercilessly beat the students and break their bones".
"This is more of a political statement being made at a protest site and not a pleading before a court," SG Tushar Mehta said while seeking deletion of certain language being used in the petition relating to the violence that broke out in and around the Jamia Millia Islamia in December last year.
The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on July 13.
In a violent confrontation between the police and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters on December 15 last year, petrol bombs were targeted at police personnel, ordinary citizens and the media as a raging mob seized parts of south Delhi nd refused to let go. .
( With inputs from IANS )