India’s Supreme Court has said it would review the controversial speech by a top court judge in which he said that the country would function according to the demands or wishes of the Hindu majority community.
Many are demanding the impeachment of the judge, Shekhar Kumar Yadav, who practices at the High Court of Allahabad, the topmost court in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The chief justice of India (CJI), Sanjiv Khanna, said that the Supreme Court would review what Yadav said at a program organized by the right-wing Hindu organization Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and held on December 8.
The Supreme Court had seen newspaper reports on Judge Yadav’s speech and sought its “details and particulars” from the Allahabad High Court, a statement by the highest court in India said Tuesday.
Supreme Court Bar Association President Kapil Sibal and others have called for the judge’s impeachment.
Yadav’s bias is “written largely in his expression of views” and his speech was “unworthy of any judge,” said former Indian supreme court justice Madan Lokur.
“Given his proclivity of making highly controversial statements, this is really the last straw and the proposal to impeach him is justified,” Lokur told VOA in an email.
Justice Yadav, who was frequently seen supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had courted controversies and polarized public opinion with his judicial orders and past public statements.
In 2021, while denying bail to a man accused of cow slaughter, he called for the cow to be declared India’s national animal and claimed that “scientists believe cows are the only animals that inhale and exhale oxygen.”
In his order, Yadav noted that ghee or clarified butter made from cow’s milk, which is used in yajnas, the Hindu ritual of fire sacrifice, “provides special energy to sun rays which ultimately causes rain.” A mixture of cow milk, curd, ghee, urine and cow dung “helps in the treatment of many incurable diseases,” he said in his order.
On Sunday, while speaking on the Uniform Civil Code at the VHP program, Yadav said that he had “no hesitation” in saying that India would function “according to the wishes of the majority community (Hindus) living in the country.”
“This is the law … the law, in fact, works according to the majority … Only what benefits the welfare and happiness of the majority (Hindus) will be accepted (by the law),” he said.
Yadav targeted Muslims, calling the religious minority a “kathmulle,” a derogatory term used to stereotype Muslim men as illiterate and stubborn.
“In your (Islamic) culture, from a young age, children are exposed to the slaughtering of animals. How can you expect them to be tolerant and compassionate?” he asked.
“Kathmulles are harmful to this country and hinder our progress. We should stay cautious about such people,” Yadav added.
The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) — an NGO working to ensure a judicial system with increased accountability in India — requested Tuesday in a letter that Chief Justice Khanna set up a committee and conduct an in-house inquiry into the case.
“Such communally charged statements at a public event, by a sitting judge of the High Court, not only hurt religious sentiments but completely erode faith of the general public in the integrity and impartiality of the judicial institution,” the letter from the CJAR said.
“Justice Yadav also used unpardonable and unconscionable slurs against the Muslim community, bringing shame and disrepute to the high office of a judge of the Allahabad High Court and the judiciary as a whole, besides undermining the rule of law.”
Supreme Court lawyer Balraj Singh Malik told VOA that Yadav’s statement was “anti-national and anti-constitutional” in a text response on WhatsApp.
“Mr. Yadav’s words go against the spirit of the oath he took at the time of his appointment. He should be kept away from hearing any cases. Many such types of judges, having tutored mentality of RSS [a Hindu right-wing paramilitary group], are in the judiciary now,” Malik told VOA.
“There is no place for such judges in India, who have a mindset heavily influenced by the RSS. This has been an issue since the BJP came into power in 2014,” he said.
The Hindu nationalist BJP or Bharatiya Janata Party is India’s federal ruling party headed by Narendra Modi.
Activist Apoorvanand, who goes by one name, said that while it is a “known fact” that the Indian judiciary is populated by judges who follow the RSS and the BJP’s ideology of Hindu majoritarianism, Yadav expressed a sentiment that “even the top BJP leaders shy away from.”
“He justified the demolition of the Babri Mosque, an act which the Supreme Court has deemed criminal,” Apoorvanand, a Delhi University professor, told VOA.
“Yadav’s speech proves that he does not believe in the constitution of India which is secular and is a partisan judge from whom no Muslim or non-Hindu can expect justice from. He is therefore a dangerous person as a judge and should not be allowed to continue in his post,” Apoorvanand added.
Rights activist Harsh Mander said that Yadav’s comment “brazenly violates” the Indian constitution, upholding which is the judge’s highest duty.
“The constitution, after all, guarantees equal citizenship rights in every way for religious minorities as compared to the Hindu majority,” he told VOA in a text via the Signal Messenger app.
“But even if this assurance was not the soul of the Indian constitution, it lies at the core of any justice process anyway,” he said, adding that Yadav violated not just the Indian constitution but also the core idea of justice.
Former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission Zafarul-Islam Khan said that with his speech, Justice Yadav has exposed his leanings toward Hindutva.
Hindutva is a right-wing Hindu nationalist political ideology that seeks to establish Hinduism and Hindu culture as dominant in India and aims to turn India into an overtly Hindu nation-state. Hindutva forces have been rising in India since the BJP came to power in 2014.
“The judge not only exposed his beliefs, he also let out a well-known secret about the Indian judiciary that over the past decades believers in hard-core Hindutva have sneaked into the system,” Khan told VOA.
“It is a serious matter for a secular country that its judiciary is now partially at least controlled by judges who do not believe in secularism — for them Hindutva and Hindu interests are supreme.
