Anand Mathur
When a respected Judge and Lokayukta writes to the Chief Justice of India to remove a judge from a bench because of his “communal mindset” it is a matter the nation should sit up and take note of.
Retired Gujarat High Court Judge and former Gujarat Lokayukta, Justice S.M. Soni, in a letter dated 27th June, 2012 wrote to the Chief Justice of India that the “communal mindset” Justice Aftab Alam should be kept away from Gujarat cases in the Supreme Court!
Justice Soni was forced to write this on the basis of speeches made by the Justice Alam in a forum abroad and on the basis of an article contributed by the latter to a leading international think tank. In the speech and article Justice Alam raised objections on certain decisions of Supreme Court benches alleging that their decisions have undermined the constitutional rights accorded to minorities!
Recently the Delhi High Court allowed a minor girl of 15 years to be married to a man based on Mohameddan Law. Pertinent questions of the physical, mental or emotional ability of a child that age to live in a marriage were not raised but the supremacy of Mohameddan Law was accepted; that this decision may have compromised the child’s rights and the protection accorded to her by the Constitution as a minor citizen are yet to be established in a higher court.
In another case our secular nation could not get a stay order on Mamta Banerjee’s controversial decision to give honorarium to 30,000 - 40,000 West Bengal Imams and Muezzins of Mosques in the High Court of Calcutta. In a bizarre unconstitutional act of ultimate minority appeasement her government announced a community specific hand-out of tax payers’ hard earned money!
The Supreme Court has also recently directed the Centre to totally phase out the Haj subsidy in 10 years, holding that there was no provision in the Holy Quran for undertaking visits to Mecca at the expense of the government or others. It had also expressed its reservations over the discretionary VIP quotas that were later cut down drastically by the same court too!
Judgments of higher courts have repeatedly established that our secular nation’s Constitution and the principles of governance enshrined in it cannot solely be based on what is mentioned in religious texts. It gives precedence to individual liberties enshrined in the fundamental rights. Nevertheless it allows certain cultural and religious freedom and protection thereof in a very dynamic way. Thus, whether the religio-cultural rights guaranteed to any community can be read in a fashion where the Sharia or the Quran can be the final source of Judgment is questionable. It is shocking that religious considerations can subvert sympathetic acts of a government, thereby allowing religious organizations and religious leaders to usurp the powers and privileges of the polity, executive and judiciary.
The few cases above show a dangerous trend in the judiciary that is tending towards Islamisation of the rules of governance for the Muslim population thereby usurping the Individual rights of the Muslim people that are citizens of this Secular country. In the long run, it is far more dangerous than accusations of judicial activism hurled at the courts.
The Shah Bano episode was a blot on the expression of modernity of our nation, yet at that time the entire nation took note of this controversy and condemned it as a retrograde step and an anti-women act. However, the case of the 15 year old Muslim girl being declared eligible for marriage has not woken up a single feminist organisation or the media to take up the cudgels to protect thousands of innocent lives from being destroyed by Fundamentalist forces that threaten to take our country back to the stone ages.
Meanwhile political parties continue to shamelessly pander to the Muslim vote bank, relegating millions of innocent people into the permanent clutches of a retrograde brand of Islam, poverty and vulnerability to radicalization. The Islamic seminarians have a stranglehold on millions of poor people and misuse their faith in ruining their lives further for personal gains and to maintain their powerful position. Educated and prosperous people make informed choices on matters of faith.
Yet now some crooks are doing their best to storm the last bastion of democracy, the Judiciary.
When a respected Judge and Lokayukta writes to the Chief Justice of India to remove a judge from a bench because of his “communal mindset” it is a matter the nation should sit up and take note of.
Retired Gujarat High Court Judge and former Gujarat Lokayukta, Justice S.M. Soni, in a letter dated 27th June, 2012 wrote to the Chief Justice of India that the “communal mindset” Justice Aftab Alam should be kept away from Gujarat cases in the Supreme Court!
Justice Soni was forced to write this on the basis of speeches made by the Justice Alam in a forum abroad and on the basis of an article contributed by the latter to a leading international think tank. In the speech and article Justice Alam raised objections on certain decisions of Supreme Court benches alleging that their decisions have undermined the constitutional rights accorded to minorities!
Recently the Delhi High Court allowed a minor girl of 15 years to be married to a man based on Mohameddan Law. Pertinent questions of the physical, mental or emotional ability of a child that age to live in a marriage were not raised but the supremacy of Mohameddan Law was accepted; that this decision may have compromised the child’s rights and the protection accorded to her by the Constitution as a minor citizen are yet to be established in a higher court.
In another case our secular nation could not get a stay order on Mamta Banerjee’s controversial decision to give honorarium to 30,000 - 40,000 West Bengal Imams and Muezzins of Mosques in the High Court of Calcutta. In a bizarre unconstitutional act of ultimate minority appeasement her government announced a community specific hand-out of tax payers’ hard earned money!
The Supreme Court has also recently directed the Centre to totally phase out the Haj subsidy in 10 years, holding that there was no provision in the Holy Quran for undertaking visits to Mecca at the expense of the government or others. It had also expressed its reservations over the discretionary VIP quotas that were later cut down drastically by the same court too!
Judgments of higher courts have repeatedly established that our secular nation’s Constitution and the principles of governance enshrined in it cannot solely be based on what is mentioned in religious texts. It gives precedence to individual liberties enshrined in the fundamental rights. Nevertheless it allows certain cultural and religious freedom and protection thereof in a very dynamic way. Thus, whether the religio-cultural rights guaranteed to any community can be read in a fashion where the Sharia or the Quran can be the final source of Judgment is questionable. It is shocking that religious considerations can subvert sympathetic acts of a government, thereby allowing religious organizations and religious leaders to usurp the powers and privileges of the polity, executive and judiciary.
The few cases above show a dangerous trend in the judiciary that is tending towards Islamisation of the rules of governance for the Muslim population thereby usurping the Individual rights of the Muslim people that are citizens of this Secular country. In the long run, it is far more dangerous than accusations of judicial activism hurled at the courts.
The Shah Bano episode was a blot on the expression of modernity of our nation, yet at that time the entire nation took note of this controversy and condemned it as a retrograde step and an anti-women act. However, the case of the 15 year old Muslim girl being declared eligible for marriage has not woken up a single feminist organisation or the media to take up the cudgels to protect thousands of innocent lives from being destroyed by Fundamentalist forces that threaten to take our country back to the stone ages.
Meanwhile political parties continue to shamelessly pander to the Muslim vote bank, relegating millions of innocent people into the permanent clutches of a retrograde brand of Islam, poverty and vulnerability to radicalization. The Islamic seminarians have a stranglehold on millions of poor people and misuse their faith in ruining their lives further for personal gains and to maintain their powerful position. Educated and prosperous people make informed choices on matters of faith.
Yet now some crooks are doing their best to storm the last bastion of democracy, the Judiciary.
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5 comments:
Muslims have more rights than Hindus!!
It is time for Hindus to take back their country.
The first order of business is the need to remove the 'secular' term from the constitution.
Unity of the Hindus is only possible when bhakthi is there, today every one has bhakthi for money... that has to be changed.
capitulating against the pressure of islam,the system wants to remain stable and one can not counter islam with peace and stability so we see the system compromising a little bit here and there bending few rules for muslims,but what the govt is not aware of is that they are just delaying the inevitable islamisation of india.
Even bhakti for money can be used as tool to unite money hungry hindus when they are explained immediate dangers of islamisation to their earning power. Slow cultural suicide of hinuism due to islamisation is not graspable for poor hindus struggling to make a living.
Thank you for taking the time to write this
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