Earlier today, the Supreme Court (SC) came down hard on former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma saying that she was responsible for the brutal Udaipur killings with her comments on Prophet Muhammad and said she should “apologise to the whole country”.
A bench headed by Justices Surya Kant and J.B Pardiwala observed, “The way she has ignited emotions across the country. This lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country.”
Justice J.B Pardiwala who blamed Nupur Sharma for the Udaipur hate crime had earlier expunged his “unnecessary” comments on reservations
Even as the court pinned the blame for the Udaipur beheading on Nupur Sharma, it is worth noting how one of the two judges, Justice J.B Pardiwala, who was then the Gujarat High Court judge, had to expunge comments made on reservations after Rajya Sabha members moved a petition seeking an impeachment motion against him.
In December 2015, 58 lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha submitted a petition to Chair Hamid Ansari seeking to move an impeachment motion against Gujarat High Court judge J.B. Pardiwala. Following the petition, the judge deleted the remarks from his judgment saying they were not “relevant and necessary”.
Justice J.B Pardiwala had made comments on the reservation system while deciding a petition filed by the Patel agitation leader Hardik Patel, who had filed a plea demanding reservation benefits to the Patel community.
“If I am asked by anyone to name two things, which has destroyed this country or rather, has not allowed the country, to progress in the right direction, then the same is – Reservation and Corruption,” Justice J.B Pardiwala had said.
“It is very shameful for any citizen of this country to ask for reservation after 65 years of independence. When our Constitution was framed, it was understood that the reservation would remain for a period of 10 years, but unfortunately, it has continued even after 65 years of independence,” he had added, causing nationwide outrage and spurring lawmakers to move a petition seeking an impeachment motion against him. In the wake of the controversy, Justice Pardiwala expunged the comments and called them superfluous.
According to reports, Justice J.B Pardiwala is set to become the Chief Justice of India when Justice PS Narasimha retires in May 2028. He will have a tenure lasting till August 11, 2030, until his retirement. His father, Burjorji Cawasji Pardiwala, had joined the Bar in 1955 and was the president of the Valsad District Bar Association. Burjorji was also a Congress MLA and had served as the Speaker of the seventh Gujarat Assembly (1989-1990).
Islamists, triggered by Mohammed Zubair’s dog-whistling, hack Kanhaiya Lal to death in Udaipur
The court blamed Nupur Sharma for the touching off tensions across the country over her comments made during a debate on Times Now where the former BJP leader had quoted authentic and reliable Islamic Hadiths to comment on Prophet Muhammad.
Soon after the debate, Muhammad Zubair of Alt News, who is under arrest in a separate case on charges of hurting religious sentiments with his Hinduphobic posts, dog-whistled Islamists against Sharma, setting off a wave of angry protests and spasms of violence as Muslim fundamentalists took to the streets, running riot and demanding the beheading of Sharma.
Then on Tuesday this week, two Islamists, stirred by the prevailing communal tensions across the country, hacked Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu tailor, to death for extending solidarity to the beleaguered leader over the incessant hounding by the Islamists and dangerous threats issued against her.
