Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences
Open Access

Commentary

Jail the Judges is the ground-breaking debut book, by Dr Bijlani, a high-profile whistle-blowing, London barrister, who has exposed one of UK’s biggest legal scandals. The book Jail the Judges charts Dr Bijlani’s extraordinary courage and resilience to attain justice a personal quest spanning more than 10 years. With expert analysis, it outlines how low the UK ‘establishment’ is prepared to stoop to ‘cover-up’ indictable crimes of perjury and racism committed by judges (such as Stuart- Smith LJ from her Chambers at 4, New Square) to pervert the course of justice, and bring the UK’s legal profession into disrepute. The UK’s legal system is highly regarded around the world and in Commonwealth jurisdictions, a fact that may now be under threat...

Dr. Bijlani’s whistle-blowing debut, lays bare the abuse of power and crimes committed by UK’s judicial and legal profession, for more than a decade. Further, many UK organisations employ people with no legal credentials or university degrees to police UK’s judges and lawyers, and make legal decisions. What is just as alarming, she argues, is the number of distinguished UK lawyers and judges involved in this ‘cover up’, and abuse of power, in what is a relentless persecution of Bijlani, perpetuating falsehoods, and denying her justice or due compensation. Dr Bijlani also questions how the UK can rid itself of racism if it is already so embedded in the justice system?

Jail the Judges begins with the commencement of litigation in 2008 by one of the leading employment firms, Bindmans solicitors on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis against Dr Bijlani’s Chambers, ‘Barring a biased Judge, am certain you will win’. This was the first race case brought by a barrister against a UK Chambers and generated worldwide publicity. In 2010, the London Central Employment Tribunal found her Chambers were racist with ‘very troubling’ racist attitudes and had inexcusably breached the Bar’s Equality Code for fair allocation of work. But, ‘fairly shockingly’ (to use the words of Karon Monaghan QC), it failed to award any damages or redress to Dr Bijlani: ‘Plainly unlawful and grossly racist.

How such explicit racism could be so condoned is bemusing to me and may be bemusing to others with an interest in equality at the Bar’.

At the time, Patrick Green QC reported: ‘The outcome of the case, despite findings of clear racist behaviour in the clerks’ room and a failure to implement the Bar Council’s Equality Code, tends to suggest that anyone bringing an equality case against a set of chambers would face a very uphill struggle, whatever the facts. Recent developments have provided serious grounds for concern of the fairness of the trial and the justness of the result’.

In 2011, Dr Bijlani obtained key, undisclosed evidence that appeared to show that Stuart-Smith LJ and Carr LJ, from her Chambers, committed perjury and concealed ‘critical’ evidence, to further pervert the course of justice: ‘The history, portrays the culture of the Bar in a very bad light, from the original tales of racial harassment, through conflicts of interest in hearings to a strong smell of perjury – there appears to be a real risk here that the integrity of the process was tainted in a material aspect of this dispute. And now it would seem the judiciary is closing ranks. One of the brightest women of her generation, who happens to be Indian, would appear to have been given a very raw deal’.

In the UK, it is mandatory for anyone who commits perjury to be imprisoned but, instead of imprisoning Stuart-Smith LJ and others, the Courts continue to emotionally terrorise Dr Bijlani and abuse their power. In 2018, Byrne and Partners, asserted that there was an ‘establishment stitch-up’ against her, and by 2020, Alun Jones QC assessed the persecution of Dr Bijlani was ‘astonishing, extraordinary and unique’.

Conclusion

Jail the Judges is a thought-provoking yet troubling read charting the fall-from-grace of the UK’s legal profession. It is the brutal account of the increasing levels of persecution suffered by an innocent Indian legal professional who had the courage to call out the racism and perjury rife in her Chambers.