Gandhinagar: 42 dignitaries of the city including Retd. IPS, Lawyers, Educationists and Industrialists on Monday sent an open letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana condemning ‘the unfortunate and provocative media reports’ where certain alleged observations of the Judges of the  Supreme Court, dealing with the case of Smt. Nupur Sharma are being reproduced.

The dignitaries in this letter have requested the CJI to “kindly call upon the Hon’ble Judges in the public domain to retract/withdraw such statements, or clarify if their statements are being misreported.”

The letter further states that “Expression of dissent or opinions by ordinary citizens is, an integral part of a functional democracy, and such statements by Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court, as are being reported in the media, where investigations are not concluded yet, and that too in the course of hearing a transfer petition are, in our humble opinion, uncalled for.”

The signatories of the letter are Harikrishna Patel, Retd. IPS Officer, Dr Shirish Kashikar, Dr Pranav Harishbhai Sheth, Dr Dharmendra Chavda, Dr Tushar Shah, Senior Cardiologist, Kushan Hemendrabhai Mehta, Businessman, Ghanshyam Kevadia, Sr. Engineer, Sanjay Pai, CFO, N A Kamath, Retd. Bank Executive, Pradip G Jain, Lawyer, C. S. Oza, Retd. Principal Judge, Kalpesh Patel, Pradip Patel, Mahendra Patel, Jay Patel, (Industrialist), Dr Manjul Joshipura, Dr Himanshu Doctor, Pradeep Modi, CA, Dr. V. N. Shah, Gaurang Bhatt, Jitendra Agarwal, Natwarlal M Patel, Jayantibhai M Patel, Ashish N Soparkar, Rameshbhai M Patel, MaganHania, Vikram Bhatt, Mahesh Vyas Yogendra Trivedi, Nikunj Patel and many more

A similar kind of open letter was issued by 15 retired judges, 77 retired bureaucrats and 25 retired armed forces officers yesterday alleging that the apex court surpassed the “Lakshman Rekha” in the hearing and called for “urgent rectification” steps.

Before dismissing Nupur Sharma’s plea to move all the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against her to Delhi, over the matter pertaining to her remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

The bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala allegedly made remarks that “The way she has ignited emotions across the country. This lady is singlehandedly responsible for what is happening in the country. We saw the debate on how she was incited… She should apologise to the whole country.”

The SC had castigated Sharma for her anti-Muhammad remarks and said that she should apologise to the whole nation. DeshGujarat