Allahabad court serves Katju notice on petition against his comments on beef

Allahabad: An Allahabad court issued notice to retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on a petition accusing him of having made “objectionable” remarks with regard to consumption of beef in his blog posts.

Additional sessions judge Shuchi Srivastava passed the order on the review petition of advocate Rakesh Nath Pandey, who alleged that justice Katju hurt Hindu sentiments by seeking the repeal of a law that bans cow slaughter in many states.

Srivastava asked justice Katju to file his reply by November 18, the next date of hearing.

The petition was filed by Pandey challenging an order of the chief judicial magistrate whereby his prayer for directing the police to lodge an FIR against justice Katju was turned down.

Justice Katju, who is also a former chairman of the Press Council of India, made a series of controversial statements on the communally sensitive issue of cow slaughter and beef ever since possession and sale of beef were made punishable by fine and five years in jail in Maharashtra last January.

In the wake of the Dadri lynching case from last September in which a 50-year-old man was beaten to death near Noida by a mob suspecting him of cow slaughter, justice Katju came up with an outpouring of a number of scathing remarks.

Recently, in a Facebook post, justice Katju wrote that he had a “danda” (stick) with which he wished to hit those who made a fuss over the issue of cow slaughter and beef.