An April 1st Invitation
By Justice Markandey Katju
Once, soon after I became a Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1991, I decided to play a prank.
I dictated this to my private secretary :
''Dear Brother
You are cordially invited to have tea with me tomorrow, 1st April, at 5 pm at my residence
Justice A B''
I told my secretary to type the invitation on the official letterhead of the High Court and send a copy to about a dozen Judges of the High Court.
All these Judges turned up at the residence of Justice A B at 5 pm. Justice A B was flabbergasted on seeing his one dozen colleagues, whom he had never invited, but his wife quickly sent a servant on a car to a shop to get some samosas, rasgullas, imarti, etc, which she served to these Judges.
Justice A B ( who was much senior to me ) came to know somehow that it was I who was behind this prank, and he sent for me and asked me why I did this?
I replied that I had thought these fools ( meaning these dozen Judges ) would have realised it was a joke on seeing the date 1st April on the invitation.
At this, Justice A B laughed and let the matter go.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
