Sitaram Yechury writes to President seeking removal of J-K HC Chief Justice
Dec 16, 2021
New Delhi [India], December 16 : Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking dismissal of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal over his reported statement that inclusion of the terms secular and socialist in the Preamble of the Constitution had "narrowed" India's spiritual image.
Alleging a "serious misconduct," the CPI(M) leader in his letter said Justice Mithal, addressing the seminar organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, an organization affiliated to the RSS, on December 5, had reportedly said: "Inclusion of the terms secular and socialist in the Preamble of the Constitution had narrowed India's spiritual image."
The Justice has "violated his oath and compromised the Constitutional Office held by him," Yechury said.
Terming the statement of the Justice as an "unpardonable offence", Yechury said: "Utterances against the country's Constitution by a High Court Chief Justice, that too from a platform which preaches a particular ideology, is an unpardonable offence, which is in violation of the oath taken by him to carry out his constitutional functions."
"Justice Mithal's conduct unbecoming of the Constitutional office of the Chief Justice that he is holding warrants his immediate removal from the said office," the CPI(M) leader said.
