Five Reasons Why Throwing a Shoe at Dalit CJI in Sanatan’s Name Goes Beyond Judicial Insult to Threaten India
The attempted assault on Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on October 6, 2025, when advocate Rakesh Kishore hurled a shoe at him while screaming “Sanatan ka apmaan nahi sahenge (We will not tolerate the insult of Sanatan)”, represents more than just a security breach in the Supreme Court. This incident crystallises multiple dangerous trends that assault the constitutional and social fabric of India under the Hindutva ideology of the Modi government.
Here are five reasons why the act of throwing a shoe at a Dalit CJI in the name of Sanatan goes beyond the insult to higher judiciary and should concern all Indians.
- An unprecedented attack on the highest judiciary
The assault on the CJI Gavai constitutes the gravest breach of judicial security in independent India's history. The Supreme Court, described as the “temple of justice,” witnessed its sanctity violated when Kishore removed his sports shoe and attempted to hurl it at Justice Gavai during routine court proceedings.
Justice Gavai's composure, by maintaining that “these things do not affect me” and directing the court proceedings to continue, cannot mask the institutional damage. This attack strikes at the very foundation of judicial independence, sending a chilling message to judges across the hierarchy that their personal safety cannot be guaranteed even within the highest court's chambers.
- Political response exposes the Bharatiya Janata Party
The delayed political response from the ruling establishment revealed telling patterns about those in power at the Centre. Opposition leaders swiftly condemned the attack, with Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi calling it “an assault not just on him, but on our Constitution as well”. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi termed it “an assault on the dignity of our judiciary and the spirit of our Constitution”, while Communist Party of India (Marxist) connected it to the “toxic climate” created by “BJP chief ministers, ministers and leaders promoting casteist, Manuvadi and communal ideas”.
Prime Minister Modi's response came only after sustained criticism, with his carefully worded statement on X describing the act as “reprehensible” and claiming it “angered every Indian”. However, the silence from the Law ministry was deafening; no official statement has emerged from the ministry responsible for judicial administration, suggesting institutional paralysis – or worse, complicity – in confronting Hindutva extremists targeting the judiciary.
Meanwhile, social media witnessed disturbing celebrations from a horde of Hindutva supporters who justified the attack on the CJI as a legitimate response to perceived “anti-Hindu” remarks.
This normalisation of violence by Hindutva goons against constitutional institutions marks a dangerous escalation in the project to intimidate voices within the state apparatus, while the government looks askance.
- CJI’s Dalit identity is a crucial factor
Justice Gavai's identity as India's only second Dalit Chief Justice adds a crucial dimension to this attack. The current CJI comes from a distinguished Ambedkarite lineage: his father Ramkrishna Suryabhan Gavai was a close associate of B.R. Ambedkar and embraced Buddhism along with Dr Ambedkar during the historic mass conversion at Nagpur in 1956.
The Gavai family has remained committed to Ambedkarite principles, with Justice Gavai becoming India's first Buddhist Chief Justice.
This background makes the attack particularly sinister. The choice of throwing a shoe – traditionally considered the ultimate insult in Hindu culture – at a Dalit judge evokes historical patterns of caste-based humiliation.
When the upper-caste perpetrator shouted slogans about “Sanatan Dharma,” the underlying caste dynamics cannot be ignored, especially given the recent controversy over the CJI's mother declining to attend an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh centenary event due to her Ambedkarite beliefs.
- SC/ST Atrocities Act not being invoked
The incident clearly falls under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Act specifically covers acts intended to humiliate members of SC/ST communities in public spaces. Previous cases have established that even throwing footwear at Dalit officials constitutes an offense under this legislation.
The Supreme Court registrar's refusal to file charges represents a serious institutional failure. If the highest court's administrative machinery cannot protect its own Dalit Chief Justice, it sends a devastating message about the vulnerability of Dalits across India's power structures.
It is not for the CJI to forgive him or choose to not press charges, because this decision effectively grants impunity to caste-based attacks, undermining the very legal protections the Supreme Court is meant to uphold.
The registrar's instruction to Delhi Police to return Kishore's shoes and documents after mere questioning further trivialises the gravity of the offense. This stands in stark contrast to the Act's mandate for immediate registration of FIRs and proper investigation of caste-motivated attacks.
- Media coverage is sanitising Hindutva violence
The incident exposed disturbing patterns in media coverage, particularly from the private news agency ANI, which consistently described the projectile as an “object” rather than a shoe, and downplayed the religious sloganeering of Sanatan dharma. This sanitisation follows a broader pattern where mainstream media minimises the brazenness of Hindutva attacks on constitutional institutions.
The reluctance to clearly identify this as a Hindutva-motivated assault on a Dalit Chief Justice reflects big media's complicity in normalising such violence. By avoiding direct references to the religious supremacist ideology driving the attack, these outlets become part of a larger project to diminish public understanding of the systematic nature of these assaults on India's pluralistic foundations.
This incident should serve as a wake-up call about the accelerating erosion of institutional independence under majoritarian pressure. When even the CJI cannot be protected from religiously motivated violence in his own courtroom, it signals that India's constitutional democracy faces an existential crisis that demands urgent attention from all defenders of pluralistic governance.
The failure to prosecute this attack under appropriate laws sends a chilling message: if this level of impunity exists for assaults on the Chief Justice, what protection can ordinary Dalits expect in Modi's India?
This article went live on October seventh, two thousand twenty five, at fifty-seven minutes past three in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
