New Delhi: In an unusual event even by the standards of the lower judiciary in Uttar Pradesh, a judge – while invoking serious criminal charges including attempt to murder against a prominent Muslim cleric-politician for communal violence in Bareilly in 2010 – has hailed chief minister Adityanath as a great example of a “religious person” holding a seat of power.
In the same order, the judge makes a string of controversial and debatable observations – from praising Adityanath for his religious background to blaming alleged “appeasement” of a particular community by political parties for riots in the country and referring to his own record in the Gyanvapi Masjid legal battle and threats received by him from Muslim groups.
The judge even said that a copy of his order should be sent to Adityanath so that the chief minister could take action against those senior police officers and officials who allegedly assisted the accused Muslim cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan and did not act as per law at the behest of the then government (UP was under the rule of the Bahujan Samaj Party at the time).
Ravi Kumar Diwakar, additional district judge-fast track court in Bareilly, who passed the order, while serving as a judge in Varanasi in 2022 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 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 a ‘Maa Shringar Gauri’ they claimed was located outside the western wall of the mosque.
Now posted in Bareilly, Judge Diwakar on March 5, while hearing the 2010 Bareilly riots case, added Khan’s name in the chargesheet and summoned him to appear before it on March 11. The judge dubbed Khan, who is a prominent cleric of the Barelvi sect and president of the political party Ittehad-e-Millat Council, as the “main mastermind” of the riots that took place in Bareilly on March 2, 2010 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.
After recording the statements of witnesses, the judge concluded that Khan’s speech to a gathering a Muslims had instigated the violence.
Judge Diwakar, who was posted to his present court in November 2023, started off by stating that if a religious person occupies a seat of power, it leads to good results. He cited the concept of the ‘philosopher king’ propounded by ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work Republic. Plato had said that there would be no end to suffering in the Greek city states until they had philosopher kings, said Diwakar in his order hearing the Bareilly riots case.
“Justice is the lifeblood of a king,” said Diwakar, quickly adding that though in the present times the word ‘justice’ was used in the legal sense, during the time of Plato it was used in the context of religion.
“Therefore, the head of power should be a religious person, because the life of a religious person is not one of enjoyment but of sacrifice and dedication. An example of this in today’s times is the peethadeshwar of the great Siddhapeeth Gorakhnath Temple, mahant baba shri Yogi Adityanath ji, who is the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and has proven the above concept to be true,” said Judge Diwakar.
On the other hand, however, if any religious person acts contrary to the aforementioned, such as provoking people of this community, then law and order gets disrupted and riots occur, said the judge. Diwakar said an example of this was Maulana Khan. The judge stressed that since Khan is a religious leader and belonged to the Ala Hazrat, the main dargah of Bareilly, which has great recognition in the Muslim society, and heads the IMC, he has a lot of influence in Muslim society.
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.
The judge then recalled his time in Varanasi and referred to the alleged threats he received following his orders in the Gyanvapi Masjid matter. He said that even though he had filed an FIR after receiving a 32-page threat from a Muslim outfit, nobody had been arrested till date. This caused his mother, who lives in Lucknow, and his younger brother, a civil judge in Shahjahanpur, to worry about his safety, said Diwakar, adding that an atmosphere of fear prevailed in his family.
The judge then referred to the alleged remarks by Khan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even claimed that had UP not been ruled by Adityanath, Khan would have recently incited a riot in Bareilly. He was referring to the incident of stone-pelting that took place in Bareilly last month when people were returning home after participating in a jail-bharo protest organised by Khan against the decision of a court in Varanasi to hand over the basement of the Gyanvapi Masjid to Hindus for prayer.
Judge Diwakar then claimed that ever since he passed the verdict in the Gyanvapi case, the attitude of people of a “particular religion” and officials towards him had become strange. “It seemed that I had committed some sin by giving the verdict in the Gyanvapi case,” said the judge, stressing that he passed the order as per legal provisions.
Regarding the Bareilly rioting case, the judge, while criticising the alleged inaction of the police and government officials in failing to include Khan’s name in the chargesheet despite there being sufficient evidence in the investigation, noted that in India, rarely has the mastermind of a riot been punished.
Though Khan had been arrested he was not named in the chargesheet of the case.
Diwakar is not the only judge linked to the Gyanvapi Masjid-Kashi Vishwanath matter to stir a controversy. As first reported by The Wire, retired district judge of Varanasi Ajaya Kumar Vishvesha who had on January 31, his last working day, controversially handed over the basement of the Gyanvapi mosque to Hindus for prayers, was recently appointed an ombudsman of a public university in Lucknow. Adityanath, by virtue of being chief minister, is the chairperson of the university.
