Prasad defended Shah’s remarks, stating that they were “quite appropriate.”
Photo: IANS
BJP leader and Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad has strongly countered a group of former Supreme Court and High Court judges who issued a joint statement condemning Union Home Minister Amit Shah for allegedly “misinterpreting” the Supreme Court’s 2011 judgment in the Salwa Judum case.
Prasad defended Shah’s remarks, stating that they were “quite appropriate.”
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The former judges had accused Shah of publicly misrepresenting the Salwa Judum judgment and asserted that the verdict neither supported Naxalism nor its ideology, either explicitly or by implication.
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Addressing the media in Patna on Monday, Prasad said: “I wish to raise some very fundamental issues about Justice B Sudershan Reddy, who is the candidate for the Vice Presidential election, supported by the INDIA bloc parties. Since he is in public life and contesting the Vice Presidential election, his thoughts and ideology will certainly be scrutinised. There is nothing wrong with that.”
The BJP leader read out excerpts from the judgment authored by Justice Reddy and claimed it reflected an “inclination towards Maoism.”
“I am not against the judgment. But his observations were not correct. As a student of law, I would say that the opinion expressed in the judgment goes beyond the limitations of the judicial approach,” he said.
Prasad reiterated that Amit Shah had merely pointed out that the judgment made it difficult to eradicate left-wing extremism in the country and maintained, “There was nothing wrong in it.”
He added: “The approach of the author of this judgment, Justice Reddy, his ideological inclinations and leniency towards Maoism must be examined because he is contesting for the office of the Vice President of India — the second-highest constitutional post in the country. Amit Shah ji’s comments were quite appropriate.”
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