Allahabad High Court rejects PIL challenging impeachment motion moved against Justice Shekhar Yadav

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed as "not maintainable" a PIL challenging the impeachment motion moved against Justice Shekhar Yadav over his alleged controversial remarks at a VHP event last month.

"We do not see that the cause espoused in the present petition relates to any vulnerable section of people. Thus, on the touch stone of maintainability, the present PIL does not qualify the very test of initiation of proceedings on its threshold," said the bench of Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi.

The bench passed the order on the public interest litigation moved by Ashok Pandey.

The petitioner had demanded that the HC should issue direction to the Rajya Sabha chairman not to initiate further proceedings on the notice for impeachment motion submitted to the Rajya Sabha secretary general by 55 MPs.

In the notice, the MPs have sought impeachment of Justice Yadav, a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court, over the speech delivered by him at Prayagraj on December 8 at an event organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Dismissing the PIL, the bench held that the cardinal principle within which a PIL is entertained before the constitutional courts is representation of a cause of vulnerable section of people but the present PIL is not filed by such section.

Addressing a provincial convention of the legal cell and high court unit of the VHP at the high court on December 8, among other things, Justice Yadav said the main aim of the uniform civil code was to promote social harmony, gender equality and secularism.

The following day, videos of the judge speaking on provocative issues, including the law working according to the majority, were circulated widely on social media, prompting strong reactions from several quarters, including opposition leaders who questioned his reported statement, labelling it as "hate speech".