Controversy had been stirred even before the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s event on the “Constitutional Necessity of Uniform Civil Code” took place in Prayagraj on Sunday. Critics questioned the appropriateness of a programme by a Hindutva organisation being allowed on the premises of the Allahabad High Court and about the decision of a sitting judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav to participate.
At the event, Yadav demonstrated that their fears were not unjustified. In his speech, the judge declared that India would run as per the wishes of its majority. He also used a communal slur to refer to Muslims and in a thinly-veiled dig, described the community as “harmful to the country”.
Given Yadav’s judicial record, his address, echoing the communal rhetoric of Hindutva organisations, was not a surprise.
Scroll looked at several of his orders over the last three-and-a-half years and found that Yadav has a pattern of referring to Hindutva talking points. In his judgements, he has suggested that the state should honour the cow as well as Hindu gods, referred to conspiracy theories about religious conversions and accused people of making false complaints under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
He has even openly praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Reverence towards the cow
Before Sunday, Yadav was perhaps best known for a judgement he had delivered in September 2021 in which he had denied bail to a man accused of killing a cow. Cattle slaughter is prohibited in Uttar Pradesh.
In the judgement, Yadav had called on the government to declare the cow as the national animal and make cow protection every Hindu’s fundamental right. “Only if cow is revered, the country will prosper,” he declared.
He said that eating beef could not be considered a fundamental right and held the right to life of a cow above it. He rued the shoddy condition of India’s cattle. “The cow is the culture of India and the work of saving the culture is of every citizen living in the country, irrespective of religion or worship,” Yadav said.
He also claimed that the cow is the only animal that exhales oxygen rather than carbon dioxide and that ghee made from cow milk used during Hindu rituals “gives special energy to sunrays, which ultimately causes rains”. He also said that “cow milk, curd, ghee, urine and cow dung helps in treatment of several incurable diseases”.
In October 2021, while granting bail to a person accused of making offensive remarks about the Hindu deities Rama and Krishna on social media, Yadav observed that both “reside in the heart of Indians”. He went on that Rama is “the soul, identity, culture of this country and without ‘Rama’, India is incomplete”.
In his order, he called on Parliament to honour both the deities, along with the Bhagvad Gita and its author Valmiki, and the Ramayana and its author Ved Vyasa.
In June 2022, while granting bail to someone accused of cow slaughter, Yadav imposed a bizarre bail condition. The accused was ordered to donate Rs 1 lakh to any registered cow shelter in his district and work there for a month.
While hearing an application for anticipatory bail in another cow slaughter case last year, Yadav had accused the Uttar Pradesh police of laxity in investigating cow slaughter cases. He had alleged that the number of cow slaughter cases was increasing in the state, though he did not offer any data to support this.
Yadav subsequently ordered the Police Commissioner of Prayagraj district to file a progress report on the status of all cow slaughter cases that had been registered in the district.
In April 2022, Yadav had made unsolicited references to Hindu rites in an order disposing a petition filed by a woman seeking the custody of her daughter. The petitioner had alleged that her daughter had been detained by another woman. The daughter and her alleged captor had told the court that they were in a same-sex marriage and living together consensually.
While same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in India, Yadav dismissed the legitimacy of the marriage without reference only to the law. Instead, since both the women were Hindus, he said that under Hindu personal law, the marriage sacrament is valid only when it is between a man and a woman. In the order, Yadav equated “Hindu law” with “Indian culture” and “Indian values”.
Promoting conspiracy theories
In at least two decisions, Yadav has referred to popular conspiracy theories without furnishing proof for their validity.
In August last year, Yadav granted anticipatory bail to a man accused of raping a minor girl. In the concluding part of his order, Yadav said that women are filing false first information reports under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well as the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against innocent persons “just for taking money from the state.”
He added, “…In maximum cases the women is using it as a weapon just to grab money, which should be stopped.”
He did not explain how he had come to this conclusion.
In July 2021, Yadav appeared to support the so-called Love Jihad conspiracy theory that suggests that Muslim men are involved in an organised attempt to woo and marry Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam. Yadav denied bail to a Muslim man accused under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act of fraudulently converting a Hindu woman to Islam for marriage.
In his order, Yadav reproduced, without any scepticism, the submission of the prosecution that “[n]owadays, many such cases are being seen on TV and in newspapers wherein poor, helpless, dumb and deaf women are brainwashed”. The prosecution added, “Such people are encouraged and funded from abroad, just to weaken the country.”
While Yadav did not cite this as part of his reasoning for denying bail, his decision to accept the submission uncritically or demand proof may have indicated that he agreed with the argument.
Appeasing Union government
In at least two orders, Yadav also appeared to display political partisanship.
In December 2021, in an order granting bail, Yadav went on a tangent unrelated to the case at hand and praised “the honourable Prime Minister of our country for his campaign to provide free Covid vaccination in a country with a massive population like India”.
The next month, in an order denying bail to persons accused of fraudulently withdrawing money from the account of a retired High Court judge, Yadav agreed with the contention of the Union government counsel that the government would file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s 2018 judgement that made it illegal to mandatorily link Aadhaar cards with bank accounts. Yadav wrote that if Aadhar cards could be linked with bank accounts, it would be easier to prevent online bank fraud.
This was judicially inappropriate by Yadav because a High Court judge is bound by the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence and cannot express an opinion in a judgement doubting a Supreme Court decision or asking for it to be overturned.
It was also factually inaccurate since a review petition against the judgement by the Union government to make it compulsory for Aadhaar card holders to link them to their bank accounts had already been dismissed in June 2021.
Yadav’s appointment to High Court
According to the Allahabad High Court website, Yadav is a graduate of the Allahabad University and enrolled as an advocate in 1990. As an advocate, he had served as an additional government advocate and standing counsel for Uttar Pradesh and as Additional Chief Standing Counsel and Senior Counsel of the Union government. He had also served as Senior Counsel of Railway and as Standing Counsel of the VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur.
Yadav was recommended for appointment as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on February 12, 2019, by the Supreme Court collegium consisting of then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AK Sikri and SA Bobde. The Union government gave effect to the recommendation on December 12, 2019.
On March 5, 2021, Yadav was recommended for appointment as a permanent judge of the High Court by a Supreme Court collegium consisting of Chief Justice of India Bobde and Justices NV Ramana and RF Nariman. The Union government implemented the recommendation on March 23, 2021.
In neither of the Supreme Court collegium recommendations were any reasons disclosed for Yadav’s elevation to the High Court bench or his appointment as a permanent judge.
Yadav is scheduled to retire from the High Court on April 15, 2026.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!