Uttar Pradesh minister's SC is ours' remark deplored by SC
The court said that This should not be happening in the country. Both sides are free to put their arguments before court without any fear.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday deplored a statement by a Uttar Pradesh minister Mukut Bihari Verma for saying that “Supreme Court is ours” in the context of the construction of Lord Rama’s temple in Ayodhya.
“We deprecate such statements” said the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi who kis hearding a five judge constitution bench hearing a batch of cross petitions challenging September 30, 20-10, Allahabad High Court verdict giving two parts of the disputed site to Hindus – deity of Ram Lalla and Nirmohi Akhara and one part to Muslims.
The top court’s disapproval of the statements by the Uttar Pradesh co-operative minister came after senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Sunni Waqf Board and other litigants on the Muslim side, drew the attention of the court towards the statement.
Mr Verma while addressing mediapersons in Bahraich early this week had said, “Construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya is our resolve. The Supreme Court is ours. The judiciary, this country and the temple are ours too.”
Deprecating the statement by the minister Verma, CJI Gogoi assured free and fair proceedings with both the sides advancing their freely and in the manner they want – a position CJI Gogoi has repeatedly said in the course of the arguments by different counsel including C.S.Vaidyanathan, Sushil Jain, P.S. Narasimha, Ranjit Kumar and Rajeev Davan.
The court said that “This should not be happening in the country. Both sides are free to put their arguments before court without any fear.”
The CJI Gogoi has, a number of times, said that lawyers are free to argue their case the way they want. Telling the court about his law clerk being threatened, Dhavan told the court about the alleged fist cuff between lawyers’ clerks on the sensitive issue.