A Gujarat High Court judge on Friday withdrew portion of his judgment after his comment criticising reservation as a deterrent to country’s progress invited the wrath of Parliament with 58 Rajya Sabha members moving a notice to impeach him.
Justice JD Pardiwala had recorded the “controversial” comments in his order passed on December 1 while refusing to set aside the sedition charge on Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) convener Hardik Patel.
“If I’m asked by anyone to name two things which has destroyed this country or rather has not allowed the country to progress in the right direction, then the same is: reservation and corruption. It is very shameful for any citizen of this country to ask for reservation after 65 years of Independence. When our Constitution was framed, it was understood that the reservation would be for a period of 10 years, but unfortunately, it has continued even after 65 years of Independence,” Justice Pardiwala had said.
On Friday, the State Government approached the judge with an application to delete the observations even as the issue was raised by leaders cutting across party lines in the Rajya Sabha.
Almost 58 Members of the Rajya Sabha submitted a notice to Chairman Hamid Ansari to impeach the judge for his remarks criticising reservations.
A minimum quorum of 50 MPs are required in the Rajya Sabha to move a petition for impeachment. In the petition the signatory members took objection to the specific comment where the judge said that reservation was meant to end after ten years after framing of Constitution. The ten-year period, according to them, was prescribed for political reservations (specific to SCs and STs in Union and State legislatures) and not to reservation in education and employment.
The petition signed by MPs included Anand Sharma, Digvijay Singh, Ashwani Kumar, Pl Punia, Oscar Fernandes, Rajeev Shukla and Ambika Soni from Congress Party; D Raja (CPI), KN Balagopal (CPI-M), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and DP Tripathi (NCP) among others.
It said, “These (comments) are unconstitutional in nature and amount to a misconduct towards the Constitution of India that forms the ground for impeachment.” Sources in the Rajya Sabha confirmed that the Chairman had received the notice which is under consideration.
The judge in his December 1 order scoffed at the reservation seekers saying “reservation has only played the role of an amoeboid monster sowing seeds of discord amongst the people.” The judge even removed this portion of his order where he further went on to suggest, “India must be the only country wherein some of the citizens crave to be called backward.”