An advocate on Monday hurled a shoe at Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai during court proceedings to protest his recent remark on Lord Vishnu, sparking widespread condemnation from the Prime Minister, political parties and Bar associations.
Security personnel intervened and escorted 71-year-old Rakesh Kishore out of the courtroom after the shoe flung by him landed near the CJI.
Bar Council of India chairperson Mannan Kumar Misra announced the immediate suspension of Kishore and initiation of disciplinary proceedings against him.
Sources close to the CJI told The Telegraph that he had asked the apex court registry not to take any action against Kishore and to return the shoe thrown at him.
The incident occurred during the morning mentioning time when Kishore approached the raised platform where Gavai was sitting with Justice K. Vinod Chandran and threw a shoe at the CJI.
“We will not tolerate any insult to Sanatan Dharma,” Kishore said after the attack.
The CJI maintained his composure: “You don’t get distracted by these things. Let’s not get distracted,” he told the lawyers present in the courtroom.
Kishore had apparently taken umbrage at the CJI’s remarks on September 16, asking a petitioner seeking the replacement of a damaged idol of Lord Vishnu at Javari Temple in Khajuraho to “go and ask the deity himself to do something”.
“You say you are a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu, then go and pray to the deity,” the CJI had told the counsel appearing for petitioner Rakesh Dalal.
The CJI, sitting in a bench that also included Justice Chandran, had dismissed the petition.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken to CJI Gavai. “The attack on him... has angered every Indian. There is no place for such reprehensible acts in our society. It is utterly condemnable. I appreciated the calm displayed by Justice Gavai in the face of such a situation...,” Modi posted on X.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said: “The attack on the Chief Justice of India is an assault on the dignity of our judiciary and the spirit of our Constitution. Such hatred has no place in our nation and must be condemned.”
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi said: “No words are adequate to condemn the attack on the Honourable Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court itself. It is an assault not just on him, but on our Constitution as well.”
The CPM politburo said: “This incident is yet another example of the Manuvadi and communal venom injected into society by Hindutva communal forces...”
Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh, Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association secretary Nikhil Jain, All India Lawyers Union president Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharyya and its general secretary P.V. Surendranath also condemned
the incident.
