Meghalaya High Court judge Sen Claims Judgement was Misinterpreted

Guwahati, December 15, 2018:

Justice SR Sen of the Meghalaya High Court, who had favoured instantaneous citizenship to the non-Muslim immigrants, said his judgement of Monday was misinterpreted by the media.

Stating that he is not a religious fanatic and that he respects all religions, he said secularism is one of the basic structures of the Indian Constitution and it should not be further divided on the basis of religion, caste, creed, community or language.

“I would like to make it clear that when I mentioned the government under Shri. Narendra Modiji it is inclusive of the Hon’ble Ministers and Hon’ble Members of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. I also mentioned about the Chief Minister of West Bengal, which did not mean that other Chief Ministers of other States were not included. My request was to the policy makers and law makers of this country. I hope this will clear the confusion, if any, in the minds of the people…

“Secondly, 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…

“Thirdly, it is well known to all of us that “India still lives in its villages”, and most of the people in this country are yet to receive formal education and are not aware of the importance of certain documents or have not collected them or have no records of birth certificates/ hospital records / domicile. That is why many people of Indian origin may not have any of those documents especially due to the continuous diaspora. Their presence in India is primarily due to the religious persecution that they have been facing through generations and nobody can deny that. Since then, these unfortunate people have lost many of their near and dear ones as well as their property and livelihood and were forced to come to India and till date these people are continuously facing religious persecution,” Justice Sen said in a clarification.

Attributing the influx of the immigrants to unwanted partition without proper referendum and wrong boundary demarcation and mainly on religious persecution, he said, “It is not uncommon to find people living in India for generations and yet having no proper records or documentation. It would be inhumane to uproot them and displace them once again. Citizens of India are harassed in many aspects, like denial of birth certificates, permanent residence certificate, domicile certificate etc. The country needs its people to live in unity, peace and harmony”.

“Lastly, I also mention here that 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. Whatever is the truth, history and real ground reality, on that basis I have written my judgment to save the citizens of India irrespective of caste, creed, religion or language and people should understand the history of India and live in peace and harmony. I also mention that I am not a religious fanatic rather I respect all the religions because to me God is one. I believe that this clarification will clear the confusion of those who have not understood the judgment in its full context,” he added.