"Respectfully disagree with CJI Gavai...wrong message went across country": Owaisi on shoe-hurling incident in Supreme Court

New Delhi [India], October 11 : All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaddudin Owaisi has said that the incident of an attempt to hurl a shoe at CJI Bhushan R Gavai during proceedings in the apex court was "an insult to the Supreme Court" and he "respectfully disagrees" with the CJI over his decision not to take the matter further.
In an interview with ANI, Owaisi said that the 70-year-old man who committed the act had been "radicalised".
"The entire Supreme Court has been insulted. A shoe was thrown. I respectfully disagree with Mr Gavai, who said I don't want to book the case. The question is not about him. The question is about Dalits being beaten...NCRB 2023 data has just come. Every day, 12 Dalit women are raped. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of crimes against Dalits. Two boys jumped into Parliament, and we imposed UAPA on them. Now this gentleman is 70 years old. The argument for radicalisation is that young people get radicalised. Tell me how a 70-year-old man became radicalised?," he asked.
He stated that no person was convicted for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. "Not a single person was convicted. I felt pain. such a huge mob, not a single person was convicted. We said the judgment is wrong. The judgment came on triple talaq. We said it was a wrong decision. Where have we attacked a judge over religion? He threw a shoe today, and tomorrow he'll do something else. The wrong message that went across the country was that someone threw a shoe in the Chief Justice of India's court and shouted such nonsense, and the government gave a muted response, a completely cold response...What is the Delhi Police doing? If his name wasn't Kishore, but Asad, what would they have done by now?... This is casteism, this is communism... So this messaging that's going out is going very wrong...He has been made a hero on social media," he added.
CJI Gavai on Thursday expressed that his brother Justice K Vinod Chandran and he were "shocked" by the shoe-hurling attempt made by a 71-year-old lawyer Rajesh Kishore on Monday. The CJI also added that it is now a forgotten chapter for the Court.
The comments came while the CJI's bench was hearing an unrelated matter where Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarnarayan had appeared.
Following the CJI's comment, his brother, Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan, condemned the failed attack. Highlighting the seriousness of the incident, Justice Bhuyan said that it's not a matter of joke, it's an affront to the institution.The Solicitor General of India (SGI), Tushar Mehta, who was also present in the Court, concurred with the view and said that the act was unpardonable. It was the CJI's magnanimity that the said attacker was pardoned by the Court, Mehta added.
Advocate Rakesh Kishore attempted to hurl a shoe at the Chief Justice of India in the courtroom on October 6. Security personnel present in the court intervened and took the lawyer out of the courtroom. While being escorted out of the courtroom, he uttered "Sanatan ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan".
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had terminated the temporary membership of advocate Rakesh Kishore in connection with the shoe-hurling incident.
The SCBA also revoked his entry card and barred him from entering the Supreme Court premises.
The Association said, "Such reprehensible, disorderly, and intemperate behaviour is utterly unbecoming of an officer of the court and constitutes a serious breach of professional ethics, decorum, and the dignity of the Supreme Court."
It said Kishore's "reprehensible, disorderly and intemperate behaviour" amounted to "a direct assault on judicial independence" and a serious breach of professional ethics and decorum.