The court overruled a judgment that read “Pakistan declared themselves as an Islamic country and India since was divided on the basis of religion should have also been declared as a Hindu country but it remained as a secular country.”
A division bench of the Meghalaya High Court has set aside a controversial judgment of a single judge which had said that “India should have been declared a Hindu Rashtra”, Bar and Bench reported.
Terming the judgment “legally flawed” and “inconsistent with the constitutional principles”, the bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice HS Thangkhiew said the observations made in the judgment by Justice Sudip Ranjan Sen are “totally superfluous”.
“After bestowing our thoughtful consideration to the entire gamut of the matter we have reached to a firm conclusion that the judgment impugned dated 10.12.2018 is legally flawed and is in-consistent with the constitutional principles, the observations made and directions passed therein are totally superfluous, therefore, is set aside in its entirety, as such shall be non est,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.
Disposing a petition regarding grant of a domicile certificate, Justice Sen had touched upon the topic of citizenship and had observed that he would “fail” in his duty if he did not “project the original India and its partition”. In his December 10 judgment, Sen had said, “Pakistan declared themselves as an Islamic country and India since was divided on the basis of religion should have also been declared as a Hindu country but it remained as a secular country.”
He had called the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updating process in Assam “defective as many foreigners become Indians and original Indians are left out which is very sad” and said that “nobody should try to make India… another Islamic country, otherwise it will be a doomsday for India and the world”. He had said the Centre should bring a law to allow non-Muslim and tribal communities like Khasis from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to live in India without any cut-off year and be given citizenship without any question or production of document.
He had also said he is “confident that only this Government under Shri Narendra Modiji will understand the gravity, and will do the needful” and “Chief Minister Mamataji will support the national interest in all respect”.
Subsequently, he issued a clarification saying that his judgment was “misinterpreted” and it was not “politically motivated”. “I also mention here that I do not belong to any political party nor have I got any dream to get any political berth after my retirement and neither is my judgment politically motivated or influenced by any party,” Sen said in his clarification.
The Supreme Court, in February this year, had issued notice on a plea seeking expunction of the remarks which read “Pakistan declared themselves as an Islamic country and India since was divided on the basis of religion should have also been declared as a Hindu country but it remained as a secular country.” A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the HC registrar on the plea filed by Advocate Sona Khan and others, who contended that the judgment authored by Sen was “legally flawed and historically misleading”.
Source: Read Full Article
