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Kerala HC judge glorifies Brahmins; breaks constitutional protocol calling for agitation against reservations

Image courtesy: The Hindu

TCN News

Shocking comments were made by the Kerala High Court sitting judge Justice V. Chitambaresh at a“Tamil Brahmins Global Meet” held at Kochi,, while inaugurating the 4 day meet in his address. Among other things, he said Brahmins were ‘a glorified race and that they should always strive to be in the mainstream’.

Defining a Brahmin as ‘dwijanmana’ or twice-born and has certain distinct characteristics, clean habits, lofty thinking, sterling character, mostly vegetarian, lover of Carnatic music, all good qualities rolled into one.’

And he went to say that there are many agraharams  – which are lands granted to Brahmins by kings; and are also usually upper caste localities in Kerala which should be preserved as heritage sites and no flats should be constructed on those lands.

Sitting judges like him have a constitutional requirement to remain politically neutral and refrain from making incendiary cultural and political statements. And yet, in a weak attempt to disguise  his controversial, anti-reservationist, and opinionated speech , he said, “I am not expressing my opinion” and went to say “ But I am only kindling your interest or reminding you that there is a platform for you to agitate or voice your concerns about economic reservation alone and not caste or communal reservation,”.

He reminded the audience mainly the Brahmins that they have a platform to agitate against the reservation system. Giving the example of the son of a poor Brahmin cook versus the son of a timber merchant from the backward class he tried to show how the former does not get any reservation whereas the later is given reservation.

He also said that time for the community to play “orchestra” has come and not play “solo” anymore. In a strange series of opinion-based glorification, he concluded his inaugural address by saying that “a Brahmin is never communal; he is always considerate, is a ‘ahimsavadi,’ loves people and donates liberally for laudable causes. And such a person should always be at the helm of affairs. “

Justice V. Chitambaresh obtained his law degree from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram and started his practice from 1981. Designated as Senior Advocate in 2007, he was sworn-in as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Kerala in 2011 and is currently appointed as permanent judge of the Kerala High court.  

Many anti-caste activists, organizations have taken offense to his speech and are planning to launch a petition demanding that Parliament initiate impeachment proceedings against the judge. They feel that his statements amount to a contempt of the Constitution of India.