2 weeks Ago By Apoorva Mandhani
New Delhi: Since 2014, India has been living in its “ Amrit Kaal ”, Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav had proclaimed at Attlee Room in the UK House of Lords in September. India couldn’t progress at the pace at which it should have, despite power changing hands, but since 2014, it has been our “ Amrit Kaal, ” the judge said. More recently, Justice Yadav kicked up a storm with controversial comments he made at an event organised Sunday by Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s legal cell , where he in an apparent reference to Muslims said, “ Kathmullah .
.. are fatal for the country.
” Back in September, he also said that India is “now marching ahead on the path of development and in the process, we have reached the moon.” “..
. We showed the world that during an epidemic like Covid, which was killing people, we made our own vaccine, and saved lakhs of people.” ThePrint has seen a video of his Attlee Room speech.
He also said that the country stands at fifth spot in terms of size of economy, and said, “Look at the vision of our Prime Minister, who says within 3-4 years we’ll reach the third spot, and by 2047, we’d be number 1.” “This is the sort of vision the Prime Minister of our country holds,” he added. The judge was honored with the Global Prestige Award 2024 at Attlee Hall, in an event titled ‘Trailblazers of India: Pioneering the path of Viksit Bharat 2047’.
The award was presented by Lord Bellamy K.C. and Lord Rami Ranger to several academicians, judges, journalists and entrepreneurs.
In his speech at the time, the judge asserted that cows, [ Bhagavad ] Gita and Ganga form the culture of India. Hundreds of years ago, India was very developed, and was called the golden bird, he said. He also said that the Hindu deities Ram and Krishna taught us how to live life, how to handle a family, or how to run a country and the society.
While speaking Sunday on “ Uniform Civil Code: A Constitutional Imperative ,” the judge asked how “their children” would be kind and tolerant when animals were being slaughtered in front of them since childhood. He said not everybody from this community is bad, but remarked “ kathmullas ..
. are fatal for the country”. “The law works as per the majority.
Look at families or the society, wherever there is a majority, people agree to it,” he further said. Justice Yadav graduated from Allahabad University in 1988, and enrolled as an advocate in 1990. He then began practicing at the Allahabad High Court and also worked as the additional government advocate and standing counsel for the state government.
He was elevated as an additional judge of the high court in December 2019, and confirmed as a permanent judge in March 2021. Within months, he began making headlines, passing judgments advocating for making cows the national animal, bestowing national honor on the deities Ram and Krishna, and asserting that when the majority community converts, it weakens the country. Also Read: Allahabad HC judges participate in VHP event, draw flak for ‘gross violation of secular principles’ In July 2021, months after becoming a permanent judge, Justice Yadav shot to internet fame when he passed an eight-page order in Hindi asserting there is no place for religious fanaticism, greed, fear and intimidation in India.
He pointed out that everybody is free to accept any religion they want to, and can also marry a person of any religion—a right given to us by the Constitution. He then said that sometimes people convert to other religions not because of fear or greed, but because they face insults in their own religion, and feel they would receive respect in another religion. “When a person does not get respect in his own home, he leaves the home.
Similarly, if he does not get respect in a religion while living there, then he has full right to convert his religion,” he said. “Those religious custodians who insult people on caste basis should reform themselves otherwise when the majority of citizens of any country change their religion after getting insulted then the country becomes weak and the disruptive forces of the country get the benefit of this,” he went on to assert. The court was hearing a bail application filed by one Javed alias Jabid Ansari, booked under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020.
Ansari was accused of unlawfully and forcefully converting a Hindu girl for the purpose of marrying her. Justice Yadav rejected his bail plea, while asserting that religion is a matter of faith, and devotion and that it cannot be tied to any method of worship. A good example of this, he said, was Emperor Akbar and his wife Jodha Bai.
In a judgment passed on 1 September 2021, Justice Yadav advocated for a law for declaring the cow as the “national animal”, and for stricter laws against those who talk of harming the cows. The court was hearing a bail plea of a man, Javed, who was booked under the UP prevention of cow slaughter law. In the 12-page judgment in Hindi, the judge rejected his bail, and claimed scientists believe cows are the only animal which takes in oxygen and releases oxygen.
He referred to the Vedas and other religious texts to underscore the importance of the cow in Hinduism, and pointed out that Muslim rulers and leaders in the past have also considered cows an important part of Indian culture. He also asserted that “cow protection should be made a fundamental right of Hindus because we know that when the culture and faith of the country is hurt, the country becomes weak”. He went on to state that fundamental rights are not just the privilege of those who eat beef.
“Those who worship cows and live economically on cows also have the right to live a meaningful life. Someone’s right to life cannot be snatched away just for the taste of the tongue of some people and the right to life is above the right to kill and the right to eat beef can never be a fundamental right,” he added. Justice Yadav further observed that the work of cow protection and conservation is not the work of one religion or sect.
He said cows are a part of Indian culture, and it is the work of every citizen of the country to save this culture, irrespective of their religion or worship. “If this does not happen, there are hundreds of examples in our country that whenever we forgot our culture, the foreigners attacked and enslaved us. If we do not wake up even today, we should not forget the attack and occupation of Afghanistan by the tyrannical Taliban,” he had proceeded to warn.
Also Read: From Ayodhya to Ajmer Sharif, how deities have fought mandir-masjid lawsuits as legal entities A month later, in October 2021, Justice Yadav passed another judgment observing that the deities Ram, Krishna, the Ramayana , Gita and its creators Maharishi Valmiki and Maharishi Ved Vyas need to be given “national honor” through a law brought by Parliament. He opined that this should be made a compulsory subject in schools and children should be educated “because only through education does a person become cultured and become aware of his life values and his culture.” The observations were made while the court granted bail to one Akash Jatav alias Surya Prakash, who had allegedly made obscene remarks against the deities Ram and Krishna on Facebook.
While the judge did grant him bail, he observed that the posts were an attack on faith of the majority of the people of India, and if courts treat such people with leniency, their morale will increase and their conduct will disturb harmony in the country. In the 12-page judgment in Hindi, Justice Yadav also pointed out that the Supreme Court had, after years, ruled “in favour of the followers of Ram” in the Ramjnmabhoomi–Babri Masjid case. This, he said, showed that “Ram resided in the heart of every citizen of this country”.
He claimed that Ram was popular even among Muslims. He went on to also highlight the fact that the Constitution has a sketch of Ram as well, and observed, “The writers of the Indian Constitution also understood that the Indian Constitution cannot be imagined without Ram and Krishna, who are the soul of India, and today Ram and Krishna reside in the heart of every Indian citizen”. More recently, in February this year, Justice Yadav noted that the court comes across several cases in which initially an FIR is filed under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code or POCSO Act or SC/ST Act, and the victims as well as their family members receive compensation from the government.
However, after passage of some time, the victims become hostile, or do not support the prosecution’s case. “The time and the money of the investigators and the court gets wasted. This kind of practice needs to stop and action should be taken against whoever has lodged such an FIR,” he then asserted, batting for appropriate action to be taken against victims who turn hostile during trial after receiving compensation from the government.
In another order passed on 23 October this year, Justice Yadav ordered a potency test on a man arrested in a dowry case. The order was passed while the court was hearing a bail application filed by one Moni alias Monu, who had submitted that his wife died by suicide as she was depressed after being unable to conceive. However, Justice Yadav observed that while lawyers often claim that the victim in such cases was unable to become pregnant and therefore died by suicide out of depression, “sometimes the man himself is incapable of conceiving”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Thrashed by mob for ‘molesting minor’ & sent to Indore jail, Muslim bangle seller acquitted 3 yrs on var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.
addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].
src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.
getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );.
