Totally Unjustified and Barbaric

By Justice Markandey Katju
Former Judge of Indian Supreme Court
Mumbai, India

This is an email I sent yesterday to all Hon'ble Judges of the Indian Supreme Court:

To my brother and sister Judges of the Indian Supreme Court

I just now received this fb message from a sender who did not want his name disclosed:

''Sir,

“In Aligarh, UP, India four Muslim meat traders were falsely accused of cow slaughter and were brutally beaten by a mob of hooligans to such an extent that they were left bleeding and half dead.

“Is there no police for law and order and no judiciary for justice? A frenzied, blood thirsty mob in Aligarh, crossed all limits of barbarism and cruelty and beat up 4 innocent Muslim meat sellers on the street on the false charge of cow slaughter, leaving them half dead.

“Who has given them the right to commit such atrocities? It is such terrorist organisations that spread the poison of hatred in society. This is a serious threat to the integrity, internal security and unity of the country. Such anarchists are a question mark on law and order and an open challenge to the police and judiciary in India.

“We demand from the administration to take strict legal action against such goons so that the seriously injured youth can get justice.''

Brother and sister judges, if Muslim merchants can be physically assaulted with impunity with no help from the local authorities or police who turn a blind eye to such an outrage, where is justice in the country?

Please issue a suo motu notice to the UP Govt and the local administrative authorities and police of Aligarh regarding the above incident.

In several decisions it has been said that the Supreme Court is guardian of the Constitution, and protectors of the fundamental rights of the people.

In one of its early decisions in  State of Madras vs VG Row  , 1952, the Supreme Court held, “As regards the fundamental rights mentioned in our Constitution, the Court has been assigned the role of a sentinel on the qui vive”, an expression that has been reiterated again and again in several decisions of the court, e.g., IRCoelho vs the State of Tamil Nadu , (2007),  Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India  , (2018),  Shakti Vahini vs Union of India  , (2018),  C.Ravichandran Iyer vs Justice AM Bhattacharjee  (1995),  Padma vs Hiralal Motilal Desarda  (2002),  Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab  (1982),  Indra Sawhney vs Union of India  (1992), etc.

(Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of the Supreme Court of India who served as chairman of the Press Council of India from 2011 to 2014)