What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: Days after the Supreme Court came down heavily on suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, a group of 117 “concerned” citizens, which included 15 judges, 77 bureaucrats and 25 Armed Forces officers wrote an open statement condemning the top court saying such transgressions are without parallel in the annals of the judiciary.
The Supreme Court last week slammed Sharma for her controversial comments on Prophet Mohammad over the killing of a tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli in Udaipur on June 28 by two Muslim youths.
The 117 signatories include former Bombay High Court Chief Justice 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.
Among the bureaucrats included former IAS officers RS Gopalan and S Krishna Kumar, former top police officers SP Vaid and PC Dogra, Lt General VK Chaturvedi (retired), and Air Marshal SP Singh (retired).
Reacting to the Supreme Court remarks of the suspended BJP leader, the group said, “Unfortunate and unprecedented comments emanating from the two-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court-Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala, while being seized of a petition by Sharma, have sent shockwaves in the country and outside.”
They said that the “observations, simultaneously relayed by all news channels in high decibel, “are not in sync with the judicial ethos”.
“By no stretch, these observations, which are not part of the judicial Order, can be sanctified on the plank of judicial propriety and fairness. Such outrageous transgressions are without parallel in the annals of Judiciary,” it read.
The open letter further said that the observations that have no connection jurisprudentially with the issue raised in the petition, transgressed in an unprecedented manner all canons of the dispensation of justice.
“By such observation perceptionally there is a virtual exoneration of the dastardliest beheading at Udaipur in broad daylight. The observations also graduate to the most unjustifiable degree that this was only to fan an agenda,” it read.
It further said that urgent rectification steps are called for as these have potentially serious consequences on democratic values and the security of the country.
“Emotions have flared up extensively on account of these observations that in a sense dilute the barbaric dastardly beheading in broad daylight in Udaipur. The observations, judgmental in nature, on issues not before the Court, are crucification of the essence and spirit of the Indian Constitution.
The observations, judgmental in nature, on issues not before the Court, are crucification of the essence and spirit of the Indian Constitution, it said.
“Forcing a petitioner by such damning observations, pronouncing her guilty without trial, and denial of access to justice on the issue raised in the petition, can never be a facet of a democratic society,” the group wrote.
On July 1, the Supreme Court came down heavily on Sharma for her controversial comments against Prophet Mohammad, saying her “loose tongue” has “set the entire country on fire” and that she is “single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country”.
