18 Ex-Judges Defend Sudershan Reddy, Call Amit Shah’s Comments Misleading
A group of 18 retired judges, including three from the Supreme Court, have strongly criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his recent remarks against opposition vice-presidential candidate and former Supreme Court judge, B. Sudershan Reddy.
The judges said Shah had given a “prejudicial misinterpretation” of the Supreme Court’s 2011 Salwa Judum ruling. They warned that such statements from senior political leaders were “unfortunate” and risked creating fear around the judiciary.
The joint statement was signed by former SC judges Kurien Joseph, Madan B. Lokur, J. Chelameswar, A.K. Patnaik, Abhay Oka, Gopala Gowda, and Vikramjit Sen, along with former High Court Chief Justices Sanjib Banerjee, Govind Mathur, and S. Muralidhar. They urged Shah to keep political campaigns civil and dignified, noting that the Salwa Judum verdict never endorsed Naxalism.
Shah, speaking at an event in Kerala, had claimed that Justice Reddy “helped Naxalism” through the verdict and suggested that Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020 if the judgment had not been passed. In reply, Reddy clarified that the ruling was a collective Supreme Court judgment written with Justice S.S. Nijjar, not his personal decision, and advised Shah to read the judgment fully before commenting.
The 2011 Supreme Court decision had disbanded Salwa Judum, a state-supported militia, and stopped the recruitment of tribal youth as Special Police Officers against Maoists in Chhattisgarh, holding that such practices violated constitutional rights and human dignity.
The election to fill the vice-president’s post, vacated by Jagdeep Dhankhar, will take place on September 9.