New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has expunged the controversial observations made by a judge in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly who had recently hailed chief minister Yogi Adityanath as a modern-day ‘philosopher king’ and blamed Muslims for communal riots in the country.
The high court said the remarks made by additional district judge-fast track court Ravi Kumar Diwakar on March 5 were “unwarranted expressions containing political over-tones and personal views”.
The judge’s controversial remarks in a case related to the Bareilly riots of 2010 drew severe criticism, with activists and lawyers groups demanding action against him.
On March 19, while hearing a criminal revision petition filed by Muslim cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, whom judge Diwakar had described as the “main mastermind” of the Bareilly riots, the high court also pulled up the lower court judge for sharing his personal experiences in the order.
Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra said this was “not at all required while passing passing judicial order”.
Justice Mishra noted: “It is not expected from the judicial officer to express or depict his personal or pre conceived notions or inclinations in the matter. The judicial order is meant for public consumption and such type of order is likely to be misconstrued by the masses.”
Justice Mishra further said that it was expected from the judicial officer that “he should use a very guarded expression while focusing upon the issue in hand and should not use any observation which are tangent or alien to the core issue”.
The high court expunged the portion from the last paragraph of page six to the middle part of page 8 of the March 5 order.
Judge Diwakar on March 5 – while invoking serious criminal charges including attempt to murder against prominent Muslim cleric-politician Maulana Khan for communal violence in Bareilly in 2010 – hailed Adityanath as a great example of a “religious person” holding seat of power.
In the same order, judge Diwakar, who had earlier served in Varanasi and passed controversial orders in the Gyanvapi Masjid matter, made a string of seemingly controversial and prejudiced observations. Not only did he lavish Adityanath with praise for his religious background but he also blamed the alleged “appeasement” of a particular community (Muslims) by political parties for riots in the country and reflected on his own record as a judge in the Gyanvapi Masjid legal battle and claimed that he and his family were living under fear after receiving threats from Muslim groups.
Diwakar described Adityanath as a modern-day example of a ‘philosopher king’, a concept of theocratic ruler propounded by ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work Republic.
Judge Diwakar further remarked that the “main reason for riots” in India was that “political parties here are engaged in appeasement of a particular religion.” Due to this, the morale of prominent people of that “particular religion” increases to the extent that they believe that even if they cause riots, no harm will fall upon them due to protection provided by power, said Diwakar.
While hearing the 2010 Bareilly riots case, judge Diwakar added Khan’s name in the chargesheet and summoned him to appear before it on March 11. Khan is a prominent cleric of the Barelvi sect and president of the political party Ittehad-e-Millat Council. The judge dubbed Khan as the “main mastermind” of the riots that took place in Bareilly on March 2, 2010 during after a dispute broke out over the route of a Muslim religious procession. Several persons were injured and property damaged in the incident. A curfew had been imposed in the city for several days.
While serving as a judge in Varanasi in 2022, Diwakar had passed controversial directions regarding the Gyanvapi Masjid. Diwakar, as civil judge senior division, had ordered the sealing of a portion of the Mughal-era mosque after Hindu plaintiffs claimed that a stone found in the ablution tank there was a “shivling”. Judge Diwakar had given his nod to the videography inside the Gyanvapi Masjid by a court-appointed advocate commissioner on a petition filed by five Hindu plaintiffs demanding daily access to prayer to an alleged Hindu side Maa Shringar Gauri they claimed was located outside the western wall of the mosque.
