Rtd judges, bureaucrats call SC's observations in Nupur Sharma case ‘indelible scar on justice system’

The group claimed with such observations, perceptionally there is virtual exoneration of the dastardliest beheading at Udaipur in broad daylight

A group of 15 retired judges of various high courts, 77 retired bureaucrats and 25 retired armed forces officers have called as "unfortunate and unprecedented" the comments made by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing a petition by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, sending "shockwaves in the country and outside".

They contended the comments by the bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala on July 1 have "surpassed the Laxman Rekha", requiring rectification steps.

The statement said the observations, simultaneously relayed by all news channels in high decibel, are not in sync with judicial ethos and by no stretch these observations, which are not part of the judicial order, can be sanctified on the plank of judicial propriety and fairness.

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“Such outrageous transgressions are without parallel in the annals of judiciary. Sharma sought access to the justice system before the highest court as that court alone could consider grant of relief being sought. The observations that have no connect jurisprudentially with the issue raised in the petition, transgressed in an unprecedented manner all canons of dispensation of justice,” the open statement said.

It claimed with such observations, perceptionally there is virtual exoneration of the dastardliest beheading at Udaipur in broad daylight.

“The observations also graduate to the most unjustifiable degree that this was only to fan an agenda. In the annals of judiciary, the unfortunate comments have no parallel and are an indelible scar on the justice system of the largest democracy” said the three-page open statement released by coordinators Justice P N Ravindran, former judge of Kerala High Court, and Anand Bose, former chief secretary, Kerala.

The 117 signatories included former chief justice of the Bombay High Court Kshitij Vyas, former Gujarat High Court judge S M Soni, former Rajasthan High Court judges R S Rathore and Prashant Agarwal and former Delhi High Court judge S N Dhingra.

Former IAS officers R S Gopalan and S Krishna Kumar, ambassador (retired) Niranjan Desai, former DGPs S P Vaid and B L Vohra, Lt Gen V K Chaturvedi (retired) and Air Marshall (retired) S P Singh have also signed the statement.

The statement further said Sharma was de facto denied access to the judiciary and in the process, there was an outrage on the Preamble, spirit and essence of the Constitution.

“The observations, judgmental in nature, on issues not before the court, are crucification of the essence and spirit of the Indian Constitution. Forcing a petitioner by such damning observations, pronouncing her guilty without trial, and denial of access to justice on issue raised in the petition, can never be a facet of a democratic society," the statement added.

Sharma had approached the top court seeking clubbing of FIRs, registered in various parts of the country, into one FIR at Delhi in the matter connected with her remarks against the Prophet Muhammed.

The statement said the allegations constituted only one offence for which separate prosecutions (FIRs) were launched and Article 20 (2) of the Constitution prohibited prosecution and punishment more than once for the same offence.