The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday (January 7, 2025) dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition against the impeachment motion submitted in the Upper House of Parliament over the communal speech delivered by Justice Shekhar Yadav at an event organised by the legal cell of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
A Bench of Justices Attau Rahman Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi dismissed the plea filed by lawyer Ashok Pandey, stating that the cardinal principle within which a PIL is entertained is for representation of the cause of vulnerable sections of people.
“However, we do not see that the cause espoused in the present writ petition relates to any vulnerable section of people. Thus, on the touch stone of maintainability, the present PIL does not qualify the very test of initiation of proceedings on its threshold,” the court noted.
Justice Yadav, in a speech delivered on December 8, made several veiled attacks on Muslims while talking about Uniform Civil Code. He said the country would run as per the wishes of the ‘majority’. Without referring to the Muslims, he asked how would their children be kind and tolerant when animals were being slaughtered in front of them.
Soon after the video of the speech went viral, the Supreme Court had asked for a detailed report on the matter by the Allahabad High Court. The speech drew widespread criticism. Days after his speech, a six-member delegation of Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha submitted a motion seeking impeachment of Justice Yadav. He was accused of engaging in “hate speech” and “incitement to communal disharmony” in violation of the Constitution.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.