State will remember Late Justice LPN Shahdeo-- one of the major personalities who helped Jharkhand achieve the status of a separate State on his 11th death anniversary. Justice Shahdeo, who retired as judge of Patna High Court in 1992, was one the active leaders of the Jharkhand Movement to be the first former High Court judge to be arrested during any movement.
On the 11th death anniversary of Late Justice Shahdeo, the main function will be held at LPN Shahdeo Chowk near Raj Bhawan, where dignitaries including Governor Ramesh Bais, Chief Minister Hemant Soren, ministers in Soren Cabinet, MPs Deepak Prakash, Sanjay Seth, Aditya Sahu, Sameer Oroan, MLA CP Singh, Naveen Jaiswal, Samri Lal and others are likely to attend the function.
BJP spokesperson and son of late Justice Shahdeo, Pratul Shahdeo said, “The main function will be held at LPN Shahdeo Chowk where apart from eminent dignitaries of state. Leaders and activists who were part of a separate statehood movement who fought the battle along with justice Shahdeo have been invited at the function.”
Shahdeo said, “In the morning there will be a function at Shajanand Chowk’s residence of late Justice Shahdeo and also at the ancestral village at Roll which is at Chandwa (Latehar) district.” The state government has upgraded the primary school at Rol village from where Justice Shahdeo had done his primary studies to +2 school. The school has been named after late Justice Shahdeo.
Justice Shadeo led the movement of a separate state in 1998-99, when the movement was falling apart and reviving it was a challenge. In 1998, the Union government decided to send the Bill concerning formation of Jharkhand State to Bihar assembly to which Lalu Prasad Yadav had said that the State would be divided over his dead body.
This was the time when BJP, JMM, AJSU, Congress, a total of 16 political parties got together on one platform to start the movement, thus leading to the formation of 'All Party Separate State Formation Committee'. As Justice Shahdeo was a supporter of separate State and came from a non-political background, he was elected the convener of the committee.
The voting on Jharkhand Act was to be done on 21 September 1998 in Bihar Legislation. On this day the committee, under the leadership of Justice Shahdeo called for a Jharkhand Bandh. A grand bandh was observed on September 21 where thousands of Jharkhand supporters took to streets with the slogans of 'Pehle Maati, Phir Party'. As Justice Shadeo led the protest march, he was arrested near Shaheed Chowk and taken to Kotwali police station where he was detained for hours along with other supporters.
This was probably a historic event in the country when a former justice was arrested and detained at a police station for hours during a movement.
Justice Shahdeo had been a supporter of separate State for a long time and after retiring from High Court in 1992, he started supporting the movement on public platforms and through his writings in local newspapers.
He did not just motivate the people and led the Jharkhand movement but also helped in the legal issues which might have become a hurdle in formation of a separate state. Born on January 3, 1930 in Rol village of Latehar district, Shahdeo became the first person of Jharkhand to become a judge in the High Court. He received primary education in a government school and completed matriculation from Balkrishna High school, Ranchi.
After getting a graduation degree from Ranchi College, Shahdeo completed a law course in 1954 and started practicing at Ranchi Civil Court. In 1958 he joined judicial services and his first posting was on the post of Munsif in Hazaribagh. He became the district and session judge of Dhanbad and was the judge at Patna High Court’s Ranchi bench from 1986 to 1992.