New Delhi, December 6
Terming the debate on intolerance as
a “political issue”, Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Sunday said there is
no need to fear or worry till the judiciary is “independent” and upholds the
rule of law.
“Yeh siyasi pahlu hain (this is a
political issue). We have a rule of law. So long as the rule of law is there,
so long as there is an independent judiciary and so long as courts are
upholding the rights and obligations, I do not think anyone has to fear for
anything,” the CJI said in an informal interaction with journalists here.
“I am heading the institution which
upholds the rule of law and the rights of every citizens will be protected ...
I think we are capable of protecting the rights of all sections of people. My
institution is capable of upholding the rights of citizens. Certain rights are
for the citizens and certain rights are for non-citizens also, and we are
capable of protecting the rights,” Justice Thakur said.
He further said, “India is a big country,
we should not be afraid of anything. Yeh sab perception ki baten hain. Jab tak
judiciary independent hai, koi baat ka dar nahi honi chahiye (These are all
matters of perception. There is nothing to fear till the judiciary is
independent).”
However, he refrained from
commenting on the political aspects of the ‘intolerance’ debate, saying “siyasi
log iska kaise upyog karten hain, main kuch nahi kehna chahunga (I do not want
to comment anything on how politicians use this).” “But, we are committed to uphold
the rule of law and protect right of all citizens of society and people from
all creeds and religions. There is no fear to any section of society,” Justice
Thakur said.
Observing that certain rights are
available even to non- citizens, including terrorists, he said they are the
beneficiaries of the rule of law and can be tried only in conformity of law and
“cannot be hanged” without due process.
“In so far as we are concerned, we
have no such impediments. We have no such bias and we have no such reluctance.
We can protect the rights of all citizens,” he said, while specifically
answering questions on the recent trends and the issue of intolerance.
Making it clear that he was not
referring to any particular incident, the CJI said this country has been home
to all religions and even those who were persecuted in other countries have
“thrived” here.
The Chief Justice said “people
persecuted in other societies, have come here and thrived. We have Parsis and
their contributions are immense. We have legal luminaries and industrialists.
We have people upholding rule of law like F S Nariman, Nani Palkhivala and you
know their contributions.”
In response to a question as to why
the Supreme Court or high courts did not take suo motu cognizance of recent
murders of some writers, he said, “an order of the Supreme Court or the High
Court cannot stop the crime. Crime has been part of human life. Till the time
there are humans, there will be confrontation. That keeps going on.”
“Some frailty and animal instincts
are there in human minds, but there should be spirit of tolerance in an
inclusive society and mutual respect and faith in each other’s religions. That
should be promoted and we can progress only then,” Thakur said.
He also
referred a Muslim scholar who had translated the ‘Bhagwad Gita’ and referred to
a couplet from his Urdu translation of the holy book to drive home the point of
Lord Krishna that all religions despite having different paths led to one
Almighty.
