The remarks made by two Supreme Court judges against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma have been criticized by 15 former judges, 77 former bureaucrats and 25 former officers of the armed forces. Controversy erupted after Nupur Sharma’s controversial remarks.
These people have said in their open letter that the remark of the two-judge bench that he (Nupur Sharma) is alone responsible for what is happening in the country is not correct. Condemning the comments, a group of 77 former bureaucrats, former judges, on Tuesday alleged that the apex court crossed the “lakshman rekha” in the matter. It has been said in the letter that this remark of the judges appears to acquit the crime of beheading in Udaipur. It is worth noting that Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor, was murdered by two men last month, which the killers called as revenge for humiliation.
Nupur Sharma had demanded from the Supreme Court that all the FIRs registered against her across the country should be clubbed together and transferred to Delhi.
The Supreme Court had on July 1 dismissed his petition and made some scathing remarks. A two-judge bench had said that Nupur Sharma’s unbridled tongue has set the entire country on fire. However, these observations of the bench were not part of the final order.
The open letter issued on Tuesday said that the unfortunate and unprecedented observations of a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala are not in consonance with the judicial ethos. The letter stated that the remarks of the judges had nothing to do with the issue raised in their petition.
The signatories of the letter include former Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Kshitij Vyas, former Gujarat High Court judge SM Soni, former Rajasthan High Court judges RS Rathore and Prashant Agarwal and former Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra. These include former IAS officers RS Gopalan and S Krishna Kumar, former top police officers SP Vaid and PC Dogra, Lt Gen VK Chaturvedi (retired) and Air Marshal SP Singh (retired).
Earlier, Justice JB Pardiwala had reacted to the social media attacks against himself and Justice Surya Kant. He had said that personal attacks on judges for their decisions lead to a dangerous scenario. Social and digital media mainly resort to expressing personal opinion against judges rather than constructively and critically appraising their decisions. It is harming the judicial institution and undermining its dignity.
Case on Khadim of Ajmer Dargah for threatening Nupur
A case has been registered against a Khadim (maulvi) of Ajmer Dargah after a video of him allegedly threatening suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma surfaced on social media. Police is looking for the accused. A person lodged a complaint against Salman Chishti at the Dargah police station on Monday night.
In the video, he is seen claiming that he will ‘hand over his house to the one who brought Nupur Sharma’s head’. In the video, he said that he would openly shoot her if he insulted her. You have to answer all Muslim countries. I am saying this from Ajmer Rajasthan and this message is from the court of Huzur Khwaja Baba.
Dargah SHO Dalveer Singh Faujdar said that a case has been registered in this regard and efforts are being made to arrest the accused. He said that the accused is of criminal nature. Four people were arrested recently for allegedly making inflammatory speeches from the main gate of Ajmer Dargah on June 17. Although its video was already playing, the above arrests were made after the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal on June 28 in Udaipur.
Meanwhile, condemning the video, the office of Ajmer Dargah Diwan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan said that such messages expressed by accused Khadim in the video cannot be considered as the message of the Dargah. The office said that this is his personal statement and is condemnable.