Nothing against secularism: Meghalaya HC judge Sudip Ranjan Sen

Shillong: Following the controversy over his comment “India should have become a Hindu country after Partition”, Meghalaya high court judge Sudip Ranjan Sen has issued a clarification that his judgment was misinterpreted.

In his clarification posted on the official website of the Meghalaya High Court on Friday, Justice Sen said that his order wasn’t influenced by any political ideology.

“I do not belong to any political party nor have I got any dream to get any political berth after my retirement and neither is my judgment politically motivated or influenced by any party,” the judge said in his statement.

“Secularism is one of the basic structures of our Indian Constitution. It should not further be divided on the basis of religion, caste, creed, community or language... I would also like to clarify here that in my judgment nowhere I have said anything against secularism and my judgment makes references to the history and one cannot change the history,” he wrote.

While disposing off a petition from Amon Rana, an Army recruit who was refused a domicile certificate by the Meghalaya government despite being a resident of Shillong for the “last three generations” according to the court transcript of the judgement, the judge had made the controversial “Hindu country” comments. 

Soon, the order copy went viral on social media and the judge received strong criticism from various political parties, activists and intellectuals.

“Pakistan declared themselves as an Islamic country and India since was divided on the basis of religion should have also been declared as a Hindu country, but it remained as a secular country,” judge Sen wrote in his order.

He had further appealed to the prime minister and other officials to “bring a law to allow the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, Khasis, Jaintias and Garos who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to live in this country peacefully and with full dignity without making any cut-off year and be given citizenship without any question or production of any 21 documents.”