Sitting Allahabad HC judge delivers speech on Uniform Civil Code at VHP event

PTI New Delhi: Two sitting judges of the Allahabad high court on Sunday (December 8) were part of an event organised by Hindutva outfit Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Prayagraj, with one of them delivering a lecture on the necessity of the uniform civil code (UCC). The event, held in the library hall of the high court, was organised by the VHP’s legal cell of the “Kashi Prant” (Varanasi province) and high court unit (Allahabad). Among the topics discussed at the event were “The Waqf Board Act” and “Religious Conversion Causes and Prevention”.

Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, who retires in 2026, delivered a lecture on the UCC titled “Uniform Civil Code A Constitutional Imperative”. He said that the UCC was based on the principles of equality and justice, and that secularism has been a matter of debate in India for a long time. “The main objective of the UCC is to promote social harmony gender equality and secularism by eliminating unequal legal systems based on different religions and communities. This code aims to ensure the uniformity of laws not only between communities, but also within a community,” Yadav said according to a source in the VHP. Another judge, Justice Dinesh Pathak, was scheduled to open the ceremonies of the event with “lighting of the diyas” and “blessings”.

But there was no confirmation of his attendance. The members of the VHP’s Kashi Prant legal cell from Jaunpur, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Amethi, Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Ghazipur and Varanasi attended the gathering. Government advocate A.K. Sand and Anil Tiwari, president of the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad also spoke at the event, which VHP sources said was a closed-door event. Justice Yadav has garnered the limelight in the past with his controversial remarks, in particular endorsing elements from the Hindu religion and mythology. In 2021, while denying bail to a Muslim man from Sambhal accused of stealing a cow and slaughtering it with his associates, Yadav stated that the cow should be declared as the “national animal” and that gau raksha (cow protection) be included as a fundamental right of Hindus.

In his 12-page order written in Hindi and spattered with mythology, Justice Yadav had observed that scientists believe that the cow is the only animal that inhales and exhales oxygen. He also argued in the same order that parliament should bring in a law to take tough action against those accused of cow slaughter. “When the faith and culture of the country suffer injury, the country becomes weak,” he had observed. The same year, in October, Justice Yadav made another emotive observation in an order, saying that Hindu deities Ram and Krishna as well as Hindu mythological texts the Ramayana and the Gita along with their authors Valmiki and Ved Vyas be accorded national honours through a law in parliament. Ram, Krishna, the Ramayana, the Gita, Valmiki and Ved Vyas were part of the “culture and heritage” of the country, argued Yadav while granting bail to a Hindu Dalit man accused of insulting Ram and Krishna in a Facebook post. Yadav eulogised the role played by these deities and mythological epics in Hindu society as well as for the welfare of the world. He also noted that these elements should be made a compulsory subject in all schools of the country. It was only through education that a person “becomes cultured” and ecomes aware of their life values, said Yadav.