2 ex-SC judges were at VHP event

Contacted, Justice Gupta said the event was to discuss the current issues in the country and that he was not among those who spoke. “It is a legal body carrying out its activities and I, as a citizen, has the right to attend any function which is not prohibited by law,” he said.

When contacted, Justice Goel did not deny that he attended the event. “Please consult with the VHP legal cell for the same,” his secretary said.

The event was organised by the “vidhi prakoshth” or legal cell of the VHP and was attended by 30 retired Supreme Court and High Court judges, Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and VHP president Alok Kumar, The Indian Express had reported on Tuesday. Among the topics discussed were the legal dispute over the Varanasi and Mathura temples and religious conversions.

Before he was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2018, Justice Gupta had been Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh HC and acting Chief Justice of Patna HC. After his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2022, Justice Gupta was appointed chairperson of the India International Arbitration Centre. During his tenure in the Supreme Court, he delivered many important judgments, including upholding the Karnataka High Court’s decision allowing the ban on wearing of hijabs in classrooms in 2022.

Justice Goel had been Chief Justice of Orissa High Court before being elevated to the Supreme Court in 2014. He was on the Bench that in 2018 allowed anticipatory bail for accused in certain cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which was widely seen as a dilution of the Act. In 2019, the Supreme Court recalled it.