The Punjab Police have registered multiple first information reports in connection with allegedly casteist social media posts about Chief Justice of India BR Gavai in the backdrop of the attempted attack on him on October 6, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab said it was “cracking down hard on unlawful and objectionable social media content” targeting Gavai. While the government did not state how many cases had been filed, it noted that the complaints pertained to over a hundred social media handles.
The first information reports have been filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act and under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace and statements conducing to public mischief, The Hindu reported.
The Punjab government said that the social media posts were “a direct attempt to disturb peace and public order by unjustly exploiting caste and communal sentiments”.
The attack
On Monday, a lawyer named Rakesh Kishore allegedly tried to throw a shoe at Gavai while shouting: “Sanatan Dharma ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan (India will not tolerate disrespect towards Sanatan Dharma).” Sanatan Dharma is a term some use as a synonym for Hinduism.
Kishore has not faced any criminal action as the chief justice chose not to press charges.
However, after the attempted attack, the Bar Council of India suspended his license to practice with immediate effect, and initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. The order said that his conduct was inconsistent with the rules and the dignity of the court.
On Tuesday, Kishore told ANI that the chief justice “should think that when he is sitting on such a high constitutional post, he should understand the meaning of ‘Milord’ and uphold its dignity”.
“You go to Mauritius and say that the country will not run with a bulldozer,” he told ANI. “I ask the CJI and those opposing me: Is the bulldozer action by Yogi ji against those who encroached on government property wrong?...I am hurt and will continue to be so.”
Kishore seemed to be referencing a comment by Gavai on Friday where he said that the Supreme Court in a November 2024 ruling “sent a clear message that the Indian legal system is governed by the rule of law, not by the rule of the bulldozer”.
In November, theSupreme Court had held as illegal the practice of demolishing properties of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It said that processes must be followed before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.
|
