Didn't say anything against secularism, says Meghalaya HC judge on controversial order

Facing flak over his recent controversial order, Meghalaya High Court judge S R Sen on Friday issued a "clarification", saying neither was his judgment politically motivated nor did he say anything against secularism and that his order had been "misinterpreted".

In the 'clarification from the bench' posted on the high court website, Justice Sen said he does not belong to any political party and does not dream of getting a political berth after retirement. He said he had written the judgement based on truth, history and ground reality "to save the citizens of India, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or language".

The judge's observations in the December 10 judgement that India should have been a Hindu country after independence just as Pakistan became an Islamic country and that nobody should try to make India into an Islamic country had stoked a controversy.

The CPI(M) had urged Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to remove him from his judicial duties and had alleged that his utterances were against the basic structure of the Constitution.

Justice Sen, in the judgement passed on Monday while disposing of a petition of a man who was denied domicile certificate by Meghalaya, had also observed that he was confident that only this government under Narendra Modi will understand the gravity.

However, Justice Sen said on Friday that when he mentioned the government under Modi, it was inclusive of the ministers and members of both houses of Parliament and his request was to policymakers and lawmakers of the country.

.

"Secondly, I would clarify here that in my judgement nowhere have I said anything against secularism and my judgement makes references to history and one cannot change the history," he said
Noting that secularism is one of the basic structures of the Constitution, Justice Sen said, "It (India) should not further be divided on the basis of religion, caste, creed, community or language."
AIMIM leader and MP Asaduddin Owaisi had reacted sharply to the court order. "This is a wrong judgment. We do not accept it. You cannot give such a judgement... India is and will remain a plural, secular country. What kind of judgement is this...will the government take note."