A group of 18 retired judges have penned a joint statement against Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on the Supreme Court’s Salwa Judum judgement saying that such “prejudicial misinterpretation” will have a “chilling effect on the judges of the Supreme Court, shaking the independence of the judiciary”.
In a short statement, the signatories, including the likes of former Supreme Court justices Kurien Joseph, Madan B. Lokur and J. Chelameswar, also said that Mr. Shah’s remarks were unfortunate and it would be wise to refrain from “name-calling”.
Mr. Shah had accused Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of “supporting” Naxalism. He had claimed had Justice Reddy not delivered the Salwa Judum judgment, Left-Wing Extremism in the country would have been eradicated before 2020. The judgment was authored by Justice Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar in July 2011.
The former Supreme Court judges who signed the statement are A.K. Patnaik, Abhay Oka, Gopala Gowda, Vikramjit Sen, Kurien Joseph, Madan B. Lokur, and J. Chelameswar.
‘Campaign civilly and with dignity’
“While the campaign for the office of the Vice-President of India may well be ideological, it can be conducted civilly and with dignity. Criticising the so-called ideology of either candidate should be eschewed,” the retired judges said.
“Prejudicial misinterpretation of a judgment of the Supreme Court by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on the judges of the Supreme Court, shaking the independence of the judiciary,” they said.
Out of respect for the office of the Vice-President, it would be wise to refrain from “name-calling”, they said.
Besides the seven retired judges of the Supreme Court, three former chief justices of High Courts — Govind Mathur, S. Muralidhar and Sanjib Banerjee — had also signed the statement. The other signatories include former judges of high courts — Anjana Prakash, C. Praveen Kumar, A. Gopal Reddy, G. Raghuram, K. Kannan, K. Chandru, B. Chandrakumar and Kailash Gambhir. Prof. Mohan Gopal and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde had also signed the statement.
‘The Home Minister is a two-in-one WMD’
Citing the statement of the judges, the Congress criticised Mr. Shah, saying that there were still people in India courageous enough to call him out. In a post on X, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, “The Union home minister that our country has the great misfortune of having is a two-in-one WMD — a weapon of malicious defamation as well as a weapon of mischievous distortion. But there are still people in India courageous enough to call him out.”
He said 20 of the most eminent legal personalities of India, including retired Supreme Court judges, retired Chief Justices of High Courts, and retired judges of High Courts, have now “exposed his lies” about Justice Sudarshan Reddy.
