A strong supporter for the formation of a separate State of Jharkhand, Late Justice LPN Shahdeo was also the first former High Court Judge to be arrested in 1998-99 for leading the agitation for a separate State.
In 1998-99 Justice Shahdeo was leading the movement of a separate State. The Union government in 1998 had decided to send a Bill in the Bihar Assembly for the formation of Jharkhand to which Lalu Prasad Yadav had said that the State would be divided over his dead body.
It was then that BJP, JMM, AJSU, Congress- a total of 16 political parties came together to start the movement and formed the ‘All Party Separate State Formation Committee’. Coming from a non political background, Justice Shahdeo was elected as the convener of the committee.
The voting in the Bihar Legislature on the Jharkhand Act was to be done on September 21, 1998 and on this day under the leadership of Justice Shahdeo the committee called for a Jharkhand bandh. Thousands of Jharkhand supporters took to the streets on this day shouting slogans like ‘Pehle Maati, Phir Party’. As Justice Shahdeo was leading the protest, he was arrested near Shaheed Chowk and taken to Kotwali police station where he was detained for hours along with other supporters
Justice Shahdeo was always a strong supporter of a separate State and upon retiring from the High Court in 1992 he continued to support the movement through his writings in local newspapers and public forums.
Justice Shahdeo was born on January 3, 1930 in Kaamta village of Latehar district. He did his primary education in a government school and completed his matriculation from Balkrishna High School, Ranchi. On completing his graduation from Ranchi College, Shahdeo got his law degree in 1954 and started his practice at the Ranchi Civil Court.
It was in 1958 that he joined judicial services and got his first posting as a Munsif Magistrate in Hazaribagh. In 1989 he became the district and session judge in Dhanbad. From 1986 to 1992, he was the judge at Patna High Court’s Ranchi bench.