Senior lawyers urge CJI to direct CBI to lodge FIR against Justice Yadav

Senior advocates urge CJI to direct CBI to file FIR against Allahabad HC judge for communal comments.

Senior advocates have written to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Friday (January 17, 2024) to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against Allahabad High Court judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav after taking suo motu notice of communal comments reported to have been made by him during a speech at an event organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on December 8.

The petition, addressed to the Chief Justice through the Secretary General of the Supreme Court and copied to other senior judges, including Justices B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy and A.S. Oka, was written by senior advocates, including Indira Jaising, Aspi Chinoy, Navroz Seervai, Anand Grover, Chander Uday Singh, Jaideep Gupta, Mohan V. Katarki, Shoeb Alam, R. Vaigai, Mihir Desai and Jayant Bhushan.

They wrote that Justice Yadav’s comments “drew a stark and inflammatory distinction” between two religious communities. It was a blatantly divisive rhetoric disregarding judicial impartiality,

The judge had openly aligned himself with one religious community while painting the other in a deeply derogatory light, they observed.

Justice Yadav has rejected the allegations, saying his comments were interpreted out of context. He had earlier met with the Supreme Court Collegium judges.

“Justice Yadav’s speech has imprints of multiple offences described under Sections 196 and 302 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The speech not only wounds the religious feelings of Muslims, as defined under Section 302 of the Sanhita, but it also has the undertones of promoting enmity (Section 196) between different groups on grounds of religion,” the letter, circulated via email, said.

The letter said the Supreme Court had dealt with the issue of initiating criminal proceedings against sitting judges after consulting the Chief Justice of India.