New Delhi, 25 August

A group of retired judges has termed Home Minister Amit Shah's attack on opposition vice presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy over the Salwa Judum judgement "unfortunate" and said it would be wise to refrain from "name-calling".

The group of 18 retired judges, including the likes of former Supreme Court justices Kurien Joseph, Madan B Lokur and J Chelameswar, also said that "prejudicial misinterpretation" of the top court's verdict by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on its judges.

Shah had accused Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court, of "supporting" Naxalism. He had claimed that Left Wing Extremism would have ended by 2020 in the absence of the Salwa Judum judgement.

"The statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, publicly misinterpreting the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Salwa Judum case, is unfortunate. The judgment nowhere supports, either expressly or by compelling implication of its text, Naxalism or its ideology," the statement signed by the 18 former judges said.

The former Supreme Court judges who signed the statement are AK Patnaik, Abhay Oka, Gopala Gowda, Vikramjit Sen, Kurien Joseph, Madan B Lokur, and J Chelameswar.

"While the campaign for the office of the Vice-President of India may well be ideological, it can be conducted civilly and with dignity. Criticising the so-called ideology of either candidate should be eschewed," the retired judges said.

"Prejudicial misinterpretation of a judgment of the Supreme Court by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on the judges of the Supreme Court, shaking the independence of the judiciary," they said.

Out of respect for the office of the Vice President of India, it would be wise to refrain from "name-calling", the retired judges said.

Besides the seven retired judges of the Supreme Court, three former chief justices of High Courts -- Govind Mathur, S. Muralidhar and Sanjib Bannerjee -- also signed the statement.

The other signatories to the letter include former judges of high courts Anjana Prakash, C Praveen Kumar, A Gopal Reddy, G Raghuram, K Kannan, K Chandru, B Chandrakumar and Kailash Gambhir. Prof Mohan Gopal and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde also signed the statement.

Speaking in Kerala on Friday, BJP leader Shah had said, "Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment."

Reddy, on Saturday, said he did not wish to join issues with the home minister, asserting that the verdict was not his but that of the Supreme Court. He also said that Shah would not have made the remarks had he read the complete judgment.

He, along with Justice SS Nijjar, was part of an apex court bench that had in July 2011 ordered the disbanding of Salwa Judum, ruling that using tribal youths as Special Police Officers in the fight against Maoist insurgents was illegal and unconstitutional.