Nishikant Dubey attacks Congress on judicial appointments; oppn party hits back with 'Lodha, Gogoi' examples

New Delhi: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Tuesday hit out at the Congress over appointments in the higher judiciary during its tenure, evoking a sharp response from the opposition party that said the "shameless political use" made by the RSS, Jana Sangh and the BJP of the judicial process, courts and judges was recorded in history.

Dubey cited the example of former Rajya Sabha member and Supreme Court ex-judge Baharul Islam to attack the Congress over appointments in the higher judiciary.

"An interesting story of the Congress' 'Save Constitution'. Baharul Islam sahib joined the Congress in Assam in 1951. In the name of appeasement, the Congress made him a Rajya Sabha member in 1962. Six years later, in 1968, he was again made a Rajya Sabha member for his service. The Congress could not find a bigger sycophant than him. Without making him resign from the Rajya Sabha, he was made a high court judge in 1972," Dubey said in a post in Hindi on X.

"Then, in 1979, he was made the acting chief justice of 'Assam High Court'. The poor fellow retired in 1980. But this is the Congress. A judge who retired in January 1980 was directly made a Supreme Court judge in December 1980. In 1977, he had resolved all the corruption cases against Indira Gandhi with great dedication. Then, happy with this, the Congress retired him from the Supreme Court in 1983 and made him a Rajya Sabha member for the third time from the Congress in 1983. Will I not say anything?" he said.

In an earlier post, Dubey said, "Do you know that Kailash Nath Wanchoo, the chief justice of India in 1967-68, had not studied law at all." Hitting back at the BJP MP, the Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said Dubey might not have heard the name of Guman Mal Lodha and would not say it even if he had heard it.

"He (Lodha) was president of Jana Sangh Rajasthan from 1969 to 1971. He was a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from 1972 to 1977 and head of many committees. Then, with the grace of the Jana Sangh in the Janata Party government, he became a judge of Rajasthan High Court in 1978. The matter did not end there. In 1988, Guman Mal was made chief justice of Guwahati High Court," Khera said in a post on X.

When he left, he was made an MP thrice on tickets of the Jana Sangh and the BJP, Khera pointed out.

Another incident is even more serious in which the chief justice of the Supreme Court was forced to resign and asked to contest the presidential election, he said, claiming that this incident was the "biggest and most shameful example" of political use of judges in independent India.

K Subbarao became the ninth chief justice of India on June 30, 1966, but resigned a few months later on April 11, 1967, under pressure from the Jana Sanghis as the Jana Sangh and the Swatantra Party wanted him to be the presidential candidate, Khera claimed.

"Subbarao resigned from the post of chief justice of India on April 11, 1967, and entered the electoral fray. However, he lost the presidential election and the plans of the Jana Sangh could not be fulfilled. Zakir Hussain defeated him by a huge margin," the Congress leader pointed out.

"The matter does not stop there, it goes up to Ranjan Gogoi... nowadays a video of a hateful Sanghi is also very viral that how he announced the decision on Ram Mandir to save his son-in-law," he alleged.

"The shameless political use made by the RSS, Jana Sangh and the BJP of the judicial process, courts and judges is recorded in the pages of history," Khera said.

Dubey's recent attack on the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, blaming him for "religious wars" in India, had forced the BJP to reject his criticism and distance itself from the controversial remarks.