BCI seeks withdrawal of tweet by Indira Jaising

The Bar Council of India on Tuesday urged senior advocate and former Solicitor General of India Indira Jaising to withdraw her tweet in which she said two upper caste judges of the Supreme Court have diluted the SC & ST Act to protect Brahmins.

“I would urge her to withdraw the statements issued by her against our Hon’ble Judges,” the BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said in a press statement.

On March 20, the Supreme Court read down Section 18 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 to allow accused persons under the Act to apply for anticipatory bail. Section 18 barred persons accused of causing casteist injury and insult to Dalits from seeking anticipatory bail.

A Bench of Justice A.K. Goel and Justice U.U. Lalit also ruled that an FIR should be registered only after a “preliminary enquiry” was held by a Deputy Superintendent of Police to check if a complaint is “frivolous”.

Three days after the verdict, Ms. Jaising tweeted, “Two upper cast judges of the Supreme Court of India have turned the SC & ST Act from protecting SC/ST to protecting Brahmins, no surprises, the SC has no SC/ST judges at all [sic]”.

Ms. Jaising had followed the tweet with another, “Time for SC/ST to say, nothing about us without us”.

Reacting to the tweet, BCI chairman said, “Our Hon’ble Judges must be given the privilege of at least making orders, judgments without the fear or stigma of it being discussed and made a mockery of by one and all, and least of all by the Bar or members of the Bar”.

“Everyone knows that some of the advocates are doing it either with some vested interest or in order to gain cheap popularity. I would appeal to one and all and most importantly to the members of the Bar to realise the extent of damage occurring to the Institution,” the BCI chairman added.

Mr. Mishra said, “The persons aggrieved [by the SC verdict] have a legal remedy and anybody can avail of it”.