By Sreeram Chaulia

A highly respected former District and Sessions Judge and State Director of Prosecution of Odisha, Dukhishyam Chaulia, passed away on May 22, 2021, in Angul from heart stroke. He was 70-years-old and left behind an exemplary legacy of law and justice for the sake of marginalised sections of society.

A Product of the Grassroots

Judge Chaulia hailed from a remote rural village, Nilakanthapada, in Athmallik subdivision of Angul district in central Odisha. His parents, Mala Chaulia and Debarchan Chaulia, belonged to an agrarian farming community.

Born in 1951, Dukhishyam Chaulia grew up in the rural setting where there were no high schools and very few young people managed to get any education. But driven by a vision to contribute to the uplift of the downtrodden, he determinedly pursued higher education in spite of financial difficulties in his family and lack of any connections or guidance from elites in cities. He received his BA Honours and MA degrees in Political Science as well as a BL (Bachelor of Law), and joined the Odisha Judicial Service (OJS) in 1981. He retired from the OJS in 2011.

A Landmark Judge

His three-decades-long career as a judge set many milestones, delivering judgements in Kendrapara, Deogarh and Puri. As the District Judge in Puri in 2011, he delivered a landmark judgement on a gang rape case by convicting the accused and also fining them. Normally, in such sensitive criminal cases, the police tend to give weak evidence against the accused and the women suffer from double injustice. Much depends on the integrity and vision of the judge to do the right thing by awarding due punishment. Judge Chaulia did so in this case and is remembered to this day in Puri as an upholder of the truth and higher morality.

Throughout his career on the legal bench, Judge Chaulia had a reputation of being an honest and incorruptible figure who was known for simplicity and authenticity. He never had any airs or arrogance about being a senior judge and prosecutor who wielded power over the lives of citizens. His core belief was that he was a servant of the society and state, not a master over people's destinies or "an enjoyer" of the trappings of high judicial offices.

Thanks to his noteworthy career in the OJS, even after retirement, Chaulia was selected as a judge under the District Legal Services Authority Act of 1987 and went on to preside over the Permanent Lok Adalat for Public Utility Services from 2012 to 2017. During this phase, he was the judge for Balangir and Sonepur districts and gave many pro-poor judgements that not even the Odisha High Court preferred to overturn upon appeal by the convicted.

For example, there was a case involving 500 poor families, who had been excluded from the rural electrification  scheme of the central government, known as the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gramin Jyoti Yojana, that is meant to provide power supply to families in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. In Saintala Block of Balangir district, the Tata corporate house was given the contract to draw the lines and WESCO, an electricity company under the Odisha government, was to supply  the electricity. The 500 BPL families were left out of the scheme but the government authorities showed on paper that the work had been done.

The affected 500 families approached the Permanent Lok Adalat presided by Chaulia. After careful consideration, he passed an order that the electricity connection to the houses of  more than 500 families should be completed within 3 months. The two defendant parties, Tata and Wesco, had to obey the order and delivered the power connections.

There was also a case involving 350 farmers of Titilagarh Block in Balangir district, who were deprived of their crop insurance money due to the negligence of the Indian Overseas Bank, Titilagarh. The farmers had deposited their premium amounts in favour of insurance companies like IFFCO, IIC Lombard and National Agricultural company. This crop insurance was meant for two categories of farmers -- those who had taken loans from the bank and those who had not taken loans. The plaintiffs in this case were non-loanees and accordingly deposited higher amount of premium in the IOB branch. But for some unknown reason, the bank categorised their insurance under the loanee category. When the plaintiffs suffered crop loss during the 2011 Kharif season, the insurance companies did not give what was due to these 350 farmers under the non-loanee category. The aggrieved farmers approached Chaulia's court in 2013. His Lok Adalat passed a detailed ex parte order stating that the bank had to pay the insurance amount to the farmers with 12 percent interest. Challenging the order, the bank went to the Odisha High Court on a writ petition. The High Court dismissed the plea of the bank and the order of Lok Adalat remained intact. The bank ultimately had to pay the insurance amounts to those 350 farmers.

Defender of Social Justice

Judge Chaulia always believed in the force of law to bring good in society and in writing meticulously argued judgements that have logic and reasoning. He used to say that "if I have given a judgement, it should be so powerful and legally compelling that neither the High Court nor the Supreme Court should be able to overrule it."

Since his sudden death, many lawyers and fellow judges, as well as ordinary citizens across Odisha who benefited from his upright judgements, have conveyed condolences and sadness to Chaulia's family. Chaulia never married or had any children and remained deeply rooted and connected to his native village of Nilakanthapada until he breathed his last.

An unassuming personality who was soft-spoken and reputed for modesty and humility, he never sought publicity, limelight or fame. Nor was he affiliated with any political party or corporate interest group. His life journey from the grassroots to the senior ranks of Odisha's justice system was marked by a single purpose -- doing maximum good to the weaker sections of society and the soil of Odisha from which he himself had arisen.