Social Media Campaign Against Judge Hearing Hijab Case- Senior Advocate Of Karnataka HC Fact Checks Allegations

Senior Advocate of Karnataka High Court, S.Basavaraj, has penned a blog exposing the attempts by a group called 'Mangalore Muslims' to target Justice Krishna S. Dixit who is part of the three judge bench of the Karnataka High Court hearing the cases challenging restrictions on wearing of hijab in government schools in the state.

The group had shared an image from the 'Rashtra Katha Shibir' that was attended by Justice Krishna Dixit, with the caption, "these are the judges who are going to give the verdict on hijab. Look at it properly".    

This was picked up by others on social media by alleging that the event was linked to the RSS and that there are images of Savarkar and Golwalkar in the background of the stage.

"The comments insinuate Justice Krishna Dixit participating in a function having RSS links. These comments are made by few fanatics without even knowing what is "Rashtra Katha Shibir". I personally verified from the organisers and their website and the reality is far from what is projected by the fanatics. "Rashtra Katha Shibir" has nothing to do with RSS", says S. Basavaraj in his blog. 

The Senior Advocate also notes that, among others, Justice M.N.Venkatachalaiah, Justice Santosh Hegde, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Shashi Tharoor have graced the function on earlier occasions, just like Justice Krishna Dixit.

According to S. Basavaraj, there is an attempt to get Justice Krishna Dixit recused from the bench hearing the hijab cases.

"Those who are slinging mud at the judiciary are those who are willing to send their own women folk to the dark ages. The oblique agenda is to somehow get Justice Krishna Dixit recused from the case. Judiciary has witnessed such dirty tactics in the past. Over the decades such attempts have only made our judiciary one of the strongest institution in the world", Basavaraj says in his blog.

The image in the backdrop of the stage, that is alleged to be that of RSS leader Golwalkar, is in fact that of Sri Aurobindo.

'Mangalore Muslims' is the same Facebook group whose admins were booked by Police for inciting communal hatred in the background of the murder of Bajrang Dal leader Harsha, who was stabbed to death on Sunday.

The group had posted a message terming Harsha a "street dog" who was killed for defaming the Prophet. The post also warned that whoever insults the Prophet will meet the same fate.

Many, including the Chief Minister of Goa, had alleged that Harsha was murdered for supporting the restrictions on the wearing of hijab.

The bench hearing the hijab cases had passed an interim order in the matter restraining students from wearing any religious attire of any sort. Being aggrieved by the order, some students had approached the Supreme Court, which declined to interfere.

The cases were originally listed before the single bench of Justice Krishna Dixit, who referred the cases to a larger bench now comprising of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi.

On Monday, the single bench of Justice Krishna Dixit had refused interim relief to two students of a degree college seeking permission to wear hijab inside classrooms, whose writ petition was listed before the single judge. Justice Dixit had said that such relief cannot be granted in the light of the interim order passed by the full bench.