Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday deprecated the barrage of criticism against two Supreme Court judges who were part of a bench that criticised suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her comments about Prophet Muhammad, Bar and Bench reported.

On July 1, Justices JB Pardiwala and Surya Kant had made an oral observation that Sharma should have apologised to the country after her disparaging remarks led to a spate of violence and unrest across several parts of the country. The judges had said that Sharma was single-handedly responsible for the tensions.

Addressing an All India Legal Services Authorities’ meeting in Jaipur on Saturday, Gehlot asked the central government how judges can be expected to function without fear if they are attacked for their judgements. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and other senior judges of the Supreme Court and the Rajasthan High Court were also present at the meeting.

“It is our duty to respect the judiciary,” Gehlot said. “Recently Justices Surya Kant and Pardiwala said something. One hundred and sixteen people were made to stand up [against the two judges] including former High Court and Supreme Court judges, bureaucracy, officers and many others. I don’t know how this was managed and an issue was created out of it.”

In an open letter to Chief Justice NV Ramana on July 4, a group of former judges, bureaucrats and retired officers of the armed forces had stated that the Supreme Court’s observations about Sharma were not in sync with judicial ethos.

“Supreme Court judges had observed something but this atmosphere was created,” the Rajasthan chief minister said on Saturday.

Gehlot also urged Rijiju to speak with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore the sense of unity and brotherhood in the country, reported Bar and Bench.

“Situation in the country is riddled with communal strife,” he added. “Democracy rests on tolerance. People listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that is why people vote for him. Shouldn’t the Prime Minister address the nation and say that unity and brotherhood has to be maintained? He has to say that I will not accept violence at any cost.”

The Congress leader also expressed concern about the attempts made under the BJP-led rule at the Centre to topple state governments.

“State governments are being overthrown – Goa, Manipur, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,” he said. “This tamasha [grand show] is going on or is there democracy? If elected governments are overthrown due to horse trading then I don’t know how my government got saved.”

Post-retirement assignment for judges

Gehlot also questioned the practice of judges and bureaucrats accepting posts after their retirement, reported Bar and Bench. He referred to the nomination of former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as a Rajya Sabha MP.

Gogoi was among the four judges who had held an unprecedented press conference on January 12, 2018, to warn the nation about the perceived encroachments by the government into the Supreme Court.

Later in March 2020, Gogoi took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP amid uproar from members of the Opposition parties.

“Imagine, four Supreme Court judges said ‘democracy is in danger’, and the ones who said all this even had a CJI among them, [retired] Justice Ranjan Gogoi,” Gehlot said. “I had asked the President of India ‘was Mr Gogoi fine before [during the Supreme Court tenure] or is he fine now?’ This is beyond my understanding. Then he became a Member of Parliament.”