Indian bishops seek action against judge for ‘hate speech’
Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav said the country should be ruled only by the wishes of the majority Hindus
Updated: December 12, 2024 12:02 PM GMT
Catholic bishops have urged India’s lawmakers to act against a high court judge who said the country should be ruled by the wishes of the “majority” Hindus.
Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav reportedly delivered the controversial remarks on Dec. 8 at an event organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) at the Allahabad High Court in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Yadav endorsed the extremist agenda of the clandestine outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of the VHP and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The law works according to the majority. Be it in the context of the family or society. Only what benefits the welfare and happiness of the majority will be accepted,” Yadav said at the function held inside the high court’s library hall.
Yadav even used the controversial term kathmullah to refer to fanatic or excessively devout Muslims during his speech.
A majoritarian rule is “the opposite of everything that is intended by Article 14 and the constitution of India,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) noted in a statement. Article 14 guarantees the equality of all persons before the law.
“The comments were made during a function organized by an outfit “that was reportedly responsible for communal violence in the past,” the bishops said in the statement on Dec. 11.
The judiciary is entrusted with the duty to guard the constitution and judges are sworn in to uphold the constitution, the prelates noted.
Persons who do not have “faith in our constitution and its morality should have nothing to do with the judiciary, much less be a judge,” the statement further said.
The government should take action against the judge under Articles 124 and 217 of the constitution, which allow parliament to impeach high court judges.
If the government fails, the opposition lawmakers should step in, the prelates demanded.
The CBCI asked all parliamentarians to rise to the occasion to take action against Yadav.
Lawyers and civil rights groups have asked India’s Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna to initiate disciplinary action against Yadav and send him packing.
Ruhullah Mehdi, an opposition lawmaker from Jammu and Kashmir state, has said he was moving an impeachment motion against the judge for his comments, which he described as “hate speech.”
Media reports on Dec. 12 said the move to impeach Yadav in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament), steered by independent lawmaker Kapil Sibal, has gathered 40 of the requisite 50 notices, while the one proposed by Mehdi in the Lok Sabha (lower house) has secured 50 of the requisite 100 notices.
Of late, many Indian judges have endorsed controversial views of the RSS, which sees Muslims and Christians as “outsiders.”
Christians make up just 2.4 percent and Muslims 14 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, most of them Hindus.
