The only misleading thing in the Allahabad HC judge’s support for majoritarian rule is the use of the future tense

JUSTICE Shekhar Kumar Yadav’s remarks have triggered controversy— not because they are extraordinary but because they are uncomfortably ordinary.

His speech on December 8 at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) legal cell in Allahabad High Court is not just one individual’s worldview, it is a window into the judiciary’s rotting complicity in fostering majoritarian dominance while reconstructing statues of Lady Justice (who is she?).

The controversy lies not in his words alone but in their sheer alignment with a judiciary that seems intent on normalising majoritarianism as a national doctrine. His speech was an exhibition of both a majoritarian imagination and its legal scaffolding.

Justice Shekhar Yadav’s endorsement of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as a progressive framework for women’s rights and a unifying law for a nation of “Hindus”, regardless of their religion so long as they “love their motherland”, frames national unity as synonymous with a singular cultural identity, effectively erasing the pluralism and diversity enshrined in the Constitution.

The UCC, under majoritarian framing, is a tool of cultural homogenisation, disregarding the social, cultural and historical contexts that shape the lives of women and marginalised communities across the country.

A portion of the 180-year-old Noori Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district was razed during an anti-encroachment drive. The mosque is reportedly older than the road it is supposed to be encroaching upon. The mosque committee had sought relief from the Allahabad High Court, with the hearing scheduled for December 13.

When Justice speaks

Meanwhile, Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, a sitting judge of the same court, openly celebrated what he termed “the ancestors' struggle to release Ram Lalla’s janmabhoomi”.