A group of former Supreme Court judges and legal experts has denounced Union home minister Amit Shah’s allegation that the Opposition’s candidate for Vice-President, Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, had “helped Naxalism” by banning a government militia formed to fight the rebels in Chhattisgarh.
The bench of Justice Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar (both now retired) had in July 2011 banned the Salwa Judum — a band of tribal youths recruited as “special police officers” against an honorarium to fight the Maoists — saying it violated the Constitution.
“(Shah’s statement) publicly misinterpreting the judgment of the Supreme Court in the ‘Salva Judum’ case is unfortunate. The judgment nowhere supports either expressly or by compelling implication of its text, Naxalism or its ideology,” the statement, circulating on social media, says.
While the statement has been attributed to several former judges and legal luminaries, it has not been officially released.
Only two former Supreme Court judges, Justice J. Chelameshwar and Justice Madan B. Lokur, and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde replied to this newspaper’s query confirming the existence of the statement and saying they had signed it.
Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice Vikramjit Sen, two other retired apex court judges, had not replied to The Telegraph till late Monday evening. Several other ex-judges and legal experts are cited as signatories in the social media statement.
Hegde said: “There is no official letter as yet. The statement is confirmed by the people mentioned.”
The text of the statement, as on social media, says: “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.
“Prejudicial misinterpretation of a judgment of the Supreme Court by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on the judgment of the Supreme Court shaking the independence of the judiciary.
“Out of respect for the office of the vice president of India, it would be wise to refrain from name calling.”
Shah was quoted by PTI as saying: “Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judum judgment.”