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Allahabad high court expunges UP court's ‘unwarranted’ remarks on CM Yogi Adityanath
The Allahabad high court expunged an additional district judge's remarks praising Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, deeming them "unwarranted".
The Allahabad high court on Tuesday expunged the remarks made by an additional district judge (fast track), Bareilly, in which he had praised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in one of the orders pertaining to the 2010 Bareilly riots case. A single-judge bench of Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra termed the remarks “unwarranted” and observed that they contained “political overtones and personal views”, reported Live Law.
During the hearing of the case on March 5, the fast track court-I of ADJ Ravi Kumar Diwakar had hailed Yogi Adityanath as a great example of a religious person holding the position of power and even likened the firebrand BJP leader with ‘Philosopher King’, a concept propounded by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work ‘Republic’.
“...the head of power should be a religious person because the life of a religious person is not one of enjoyment but of sacrifice and dedication. An example of this is the Peethadeshwar of the great Siddhapeeth Gorakhnath Temple, Mahant Baba Shri Yogi Adityanath ji, who is the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and has proven the above concept to be true,” Diwakar said in his now expunged remarks, as quoted by Live Law.
“If a religious person sits on the seat of power, it gives very good results, as propounded by the philosopher Plato in his concept of the 'Philosopher King' in his book Republic. Plato said that there would be no end to suffering in our city-state until it had a philosopher king,” Judge Diwakar had added.
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The court also directed to send a copy of the order to chief minister Yogi Adityanath for action against senior officials of Bareilly for not including the name of U.P. cleric and Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) Tauqeer Raza, in the chargesheet of the case after riots in 2010 despite sufficient evidence.
"The judicial order is meant for public consumption and such type of order is likely to be misconstrued by the masses. It is expected from judicial officer that he should use a very guarded expression while focusing upon the issue in hand and should not use any observation which are tangent or alien to the core issue," the Allahabad high court said while expunging the remarks.
Riots had erupted in Bareilly following a clash between two groups on March 2, 2010. Tauqeer Raza allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech while addressing a crowd after which a mob torched a police post and houses belonging to members of a community were set on fire. After the clash, curfew was imposed in the city for around 27 days.
