Hours after 58 lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha submitted a petition to the Chair Hamid Ansari seeking to move an impeachment motion against Gujarat High Court judge J.B. Pardiwala. The judge on Friday deleted the remarks from his judgment saying those were not “relevant and necessary” while deciding the petition.
Justice Pardiwala had made remarks against the reservation system while deciding a petition filed by the Patel agitation leader Hardik Patel, who launched a violent agitation demanding reservation benefits to the Patel community.
Justice Pardiwala’s order expunging the remarks from the judgement came on a Speaking to Minutes application moved by the State government.
In the application, State’s Advocate-General Kamal Trivedi and Mr. Hardik Patel’s lawyer B.M. Mangukia requested the court to remove the remarks after they triggered a national controversy.
After hearing them, Justice Pardiwala observed in his order, “I am of the view that having regard to the relief prayed for in the main matter, which was an application under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, for quashing of the FIR, paragraph 62 was not relevant or necessary for deciding the main matter.” He noted that the entire paragraph should be deleted from the original judgment.
