In a rare and explosive development within India’s judiciary, Aditi Kumar Sharma, a civil judge (junior division) in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, has resigned from judicial service with a powerful letter accusing the system of systemic failure, institutional silence, and enabling harassment.
In her three-page resignation letter dated July 28, addressed to the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and routed through the Registrar General and the Principal District Judge of Shahdol, Sharma declared, “I hereby resign from judicial service — not because I lost faith in justice, but because justice lost its way.”
“I Choose Truth Over Silence”
With emotionally charged and brutally honest language, Sharma described years of unrelenting harassment not only of her body but her “dignity, voice, and very existence as a woman judge.” She directly named a senior judge, Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta, accusing him of wielding “unaccountable power” and orchestrating her suffering. Her repeated attempts to seek redressal from the High Court, Supreme Court, and even the President of India were met with “silence,” she wrote.
“In that silence, I saw the brutal truth of our times — that integrity is optional, power is protection, and those who speak the truth are punished more severely than those who violate it,” she stated.
A Scathing Indictment of Judicial Accountability
Sharma alleged that the same judiciary that preaches equality and transparency “handpicked power over truth” by promoting and rewarding the very judge she had accused. Her letter describes a judicial environment where “the man I accused… was not even asked to explain. No inquiry. No notice. No hearing. No accountability.”
She questioned the message being sent to other women in the system: “What message does this send to the judiciary’s daughters?” and decried how justice, in her experience, had become “a cruel joke upon the very word.”
“Not Closure, But Protest”
Sharma emphasized that her resignation should not be mistaken for closure. “This letter of resignation is not closure. It is a statement of protest,” she wrote, hoping it would remain in the judiciary’s archives as a testimony of how a woman judge was “broken by the system that preached justice the loudest.”
Her final words carry both sorrow and defiance:
“Then perhaps, my voice has done more justice than my robe ever could.”
Judiciary Under Scrutiny
The resignation has sparked intense debate across legal and civil society circles. Activists have called for an independent inquiry into her allegations and the institutional responses—or lack thereof. Former judges and legal scholars have also weighed in, noting that Sharma’s letter underscores an urgent need for internal reforms, transparency in promotions, and better grievance redressal mechanisms within the judiciary.
There has been no official response so far from the Madhya Pradesh High Court or Justice Rajesh Kumar Gupta.
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