On Monday (4th March), Supreme Court Justice Abhay S Oka said that any “Pooja” or “Archana” should not be performed on the judiciary premises. He made this statement while attending a “Bhoomi Poojan” ceremony in Pune. This program was organised in the district court for the inauguration of the new buildings of the Pune district court. His statement came days after former Supreme Court Justice K Joseph asked the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to drop the Supreme Court’s motto “Yato Dharmastato Jaya” (Where there is Dharma, there is Victory) at an event organised by propaganda website The Wire.
Justice Abhay S Oka insisted that the legal fraternity should adopt Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s mindset and that the thrust should be on core Constitutional principles instead of religious rituals. According to reports, he said, “We have to stop doing Pooja Archana or lighting lamp kind of rituals during any events related to Judiciary. Instead, we should keep the Preamble of the Constitution and bow down to it to start any event. We need to start this new thing to respect our constitution and its value.”
Present at the event were Supreme Court judges, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Prasanna B Varale, the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay, and Guardian Justice of Pune, Justice Revati Mohite Dere.
Notably, during his speech at this event, Justice BR Gavai vocally showed his agreement with Justice Abhay S Oka’s stand and said that Justice Oka had given a very good suggestion. He said, “Instead of performing pooja of a specific religion, we should mark the foundation with a spade. We should inaugurate the event by watering the plants instead of the lamp lighting ceremony as suggested by our colleague Anil Killore. It will send out a good message to society in terms of environment.”
Justice Gavai added, “I think if we as judges have courageous and unbiased nature like Ramshastri Prabhune within us, why should we fear to grant bail? These days, the situation is like bail is not granted in the district court.”
This is the second consecutive remark from the judiciary regarding perceived religious affiliations within a week. Earlier, on 28th February, former Justice Joseph suggested that the Supreme Court’s motto diverges from the national motto and, by implication, the national ethos. “Truth is the Constitution. Dharma is not always the truth. Dharma is the discharge of your duty in terms of the need of the hour.” he said.
Interestingly, at a seminar in 2018, Former Justice Joseph equated the Catholic Church to the Preamble of India in 2018. “The Catholic Church has always assimilated in itself all the traditions and cultures brought in by the believers from all over the world. This is similar to the preamble of our Constitution, which starts with the word ‘We’.” He added that the “one person who holds this Church in a single entity is the Pope”.
