BJP leader withdraws "rapists" remarks at Muslims from SC plea

New Delhi: BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay told Supreme Court that he is withdrawing his additional affidavit filed before the top court, which included derogatory remarks against Muslims and Christians. It stated that members of both communities are rapists.

"There were some objections to some portions. We are withdrawing that additional affidavit," Arvind Datar, Upadhyay's lawyer, submitted before the court.

Last month, the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, asked the lawyer to remove the problematic references from his petition, which was filed alleging illegal or forced religious conversions.

While the court was considering the petition filed by Upadhyaya, senior lawyer Dushyant Dave pointed out that the petition carried references to Muslims and Christians as rapists. Appearing for a minority organisation, he said that many of the statements in the plea were shocking and could not be mentioned in a court of law. He also alleged that there were "vexatious and baseless" allegations in the petitioner's main plea, Bar and Bench quoted Dave.

Following this, the CJI asked Datar to file an application to remove the remarks.

Upadhyaya's petition claimed that rampant, fraudulent and deceitful religious conversions are happening across the country, and the Union government is unable to control the same.

The court heard multiple petitions then, and these included some against religious conversion while others challenging the stringent ant-conversion laws in some states. Regarding the latter, an organisation such as Citizens for Justice and Peace and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind filed the pleas.

Meanwhile, the states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat filed appeals challenging the interim orders issued by the high courts of their respective states on the matter.