“Judicial sentimentalism over constitutional pragmatism: SC judge who romanticised Urdu in Maharashtra signboard ruling and backed hijabs in schools”, Opindia, April 20, 2025:
“In the vast tapestry of Indian jurisprudence, few names have come to symbolise the kind of ideological romanticism that borders on judicial overreach as starkly as Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia. A judge who wears his idealism on his sleeve, Justice Dhulia’s rulings—particularly in cases like the Karnataka hijab controversy and the recent Akola Urdu signboard dispute—suggest a pattern: a consistent leaning towards emotive convictions, identity-driven narratives, and selective secularism, often at the expense of constitutional pragmatism and judicial clarity.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking the removal of an Urdu signboard placed beneath a Marathi one on a municipal building in Akola, Maharashtra. The bench, comprising Justices Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran, not only rejected the plea but did so with a poetic flourish, unwarrantedly elevating Urdu as the “finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.”
The ruling, though not incorrect in law, took a detour from constitutional clarity into poetic sentimentalism, opening with a quote about learning languages making us more “liberal, tolerant, and kind……”
Read the full article at Opindia.com
