A group of lawyers wrote to the Madras High Court’s chief justice with the demand that no cases related to Christian institutions be handled by Justice S Vaidyanathan’s bench, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. This came two days after Vaidyanathan withdrew his controversial remarks against the Christian community in an order on Tuesday.

The representation to the chief justice had 64 senior lawyers as signatories, including R Vaigai, K Prema, B Anitha and Akila RS, who claimed that the conduct was “unbecoming of a judge who has sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws”. The lawyers also claimed that the judge’s observations, in his order, amounted to “transgression of judicial discipline”.

The memorandum was produced before Madras High Court Chief Justice Vijaya K Tahilramani on August 20, according to The New Indian Express. The memo also highlighted another 2015 order by Vaidyanathan, which prescribed a dress code for devotees in temples while delivering a judgment on a petition that sought permission to organise a cultural event for a temple festival. The order was later reversed by a division bench.

The representation noted that Vaidyanathan often voiced his opinions and issued directions on matters that were not being adjudicated. The lawyers said that such observations amounted to “abuse of office”, “propagation of communal violence” and were biased on the basis of gender.

The lawyers claimed that there were other judges who had made comments that were not linked to the cases before them. They provided instances such as Justice N Kirubakaran’s remarks on castration of offenders in child sexual abuse cases.

The memorandum also pointed out that the danger of using the judicial platform for such unconstitutional personal views was that they eventually end up as a judicial order. It also made it an obligation for the public, legislators and investigating agencies to treat the order with respect and proceed to implement it.

In his August 13 order, Vaidyanathan had said that Christian educational institutions were “highly unsafe” for the future of children, especially girls. He also said that Christian missionaries “are always on the source of attack” and that there had been accusations against some of them for “indulging in compulsory conversion of people into Christianity”. He had made the observation on August 17 while hearing a petition to quash a showcause notice sent to a Madras Christian College professor accused of sexually harassing at least 34 women students of the institute.

However, the judge agreed to withdraw his comments after several Christian groups, including the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, voiced concerns over the statements.

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