Sanatana Dharma case: HC carries out multiple corrections to verdict
The Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Madurai honoured Pooranam Ammal, who recently donated 1.52 acres of land to upgrade a government school in Madurai, by issuing her a fresh passport on the same day she applied for one.
The passport was handed over Ms. Ammal on Saturday, in recognition of her selfless service to society. At an event to mark the International Women’s Day, the RPO authorities had organised a programme, inviting Ms. Ammal, alias U. Aayi Ammal, as the chief guest.
Regional Passport Officer Vasanthan B. hailed her for donating a large parcel of land for the construction of additional buildings to upgrade the Madurai East Panchayat Union Middle School.
Ms. Ammal had donated the land in memory of her daughter Janani. Following the donation of land worth ₹7 crore, she had also given away a plot of 91 cents to the School Education Department.
‘Education vital’
Ms. Ammal said education was essential for everyone and when knowledge was disseminated to the masses, society would benefit. During the Republic Day celebrations in Chennai this year, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had honoured Ms. Ammal for her philanthropy.
The Madras High Court has carried out multiple corrections to a judgment it delivered on Wednesday on a batch of three writ of quo warranto petitions filed against Ministers Udhayanidhi Stalin and P.K. Sekarbabu, and the Nilgiris MP A. Raja in connection with the Sanatana Dharma row.
Justice Anita Sumanth had pronounced the verdict, and a web copy of it was made available on the High Court website on Thursday. However, on Friday, the first web copy was taken down from the website and replaced with another, containing multiple corrections. In paragraph 43 of the first web copy, the judge had recorded the writ petitioners’ submission that Tamil Nadu had a list of 184 castes falling within backward and most backward classes, but such divisions were a creation of the recent times and not that of vedic literature.
There was no intext reference in the copy mentioning the source from which the petitioners had made the claim about the existence of 184 castes. However, in the second web copy, an intext reference had been added, indicating the data to have been sourced from the Tamil Nadu government website.
In paragraph 121 of the first web copy, the judge had said that a sample study of the original vedic texts was carried out, at the court’s request, by senior professors at Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute in Chennai. It had confirmed that the phrase Sanatana Dharma was always used in the context of high moral values and virtuous living. “My thanks to them for this timely assistance. There is absolutely no material to lead to the conclusion that that phrase was used in the context of the varna system or to propagate unfair and inequitable divisions of society in any manner,” the judge had said.
However, in the corrected web copy, the word ‘only’ had been added to the second sentence: “There is absolutely no material to lead to the conclusion that that phrase was used only in the context of the varna
First web copy of the judgment was replaced with another copy containing corrections.
system or to propagate unfair and inequitable divisions of society in any manner.”
In paragraph 128 of the first web copy, the judge had said that those who lived on the banks of River Sindhu were practitioners of Sanatana Dharma. “The word ‘Sindhu’ came to be modified over the years to ‘Hindu’ and in time, became associated with the people living in that area. As Hindus/practitioners of Sanatana Dharma expanded their area of residence, they carried with them the tenets of Sanatana Dharma as well” the paragraph read.
The corrected web copy provides an intext reference, citing the source as ‘The Hindu View of Life’ penned by former President S. Radhakrishnan.
Two other sentences in paragraph 138 of the first web copy read: “The origins of the caste system as we know it today are less than a centuryold. Tamil Nadu has 370 registered castes and the State is a cacophony of pulls and pressures by groups of persons claiming allegiance to one caste or the other.” In the second web copy, they had been corrected to read: “The categorisation of castes as we know them today, is a far more recent and modern phenomenon. Tamil Nadu has 184 registered castes and the State is a cacophony of pulls and pressures by groups of persons claiming allegiance to one caste or the other.”
Further, due to the corrections and realignment of paragraphs, the size of the corrected web copy of the judgment had reduced to 102 pages as against 107 pages in the first web copy. However, the page numbers provided in the index to the judgment were not changed leading to the index in corrected web copy ending up mentioning wrong page numbers.
Advocate M. Radhakrishnan said the corrections made to the judgment has led to an undesirable situation of hundreds of people, interested in the subject, being in possession of two different web copies of the same judgment.
He said that once a judge signs a verdict, he/ she would become functus officio and should not add or delete even a comma without listing the matter again in open court, and putting the lawyers concerned on notice especially when web copies were also considered as authenticated copies after the inclusion of QR codes.