Recent comments on "love jihad" made in an order passed by Uttar Pradesh District Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar have sparked outrage and raised questions on judicial propriety.
While sentencing a Muslim man to life imprisonment for rape, Diwakar stated that Muslim men systematically target Hindu women for conversion to Islam through marriage by feigning love.
He also commented that the “main objective of love jihad” is to establish supremacy over India as a party of “demographic war and international conspiracy by some anarchist elements of a particular religion”.
This is not the first time Diwakar has made headlines. In March this year, he was in the news when he praised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in one of his orders.
While lauding Adityanath for being the perfect example of a religious person who holds a seat of power with dedication and sacrifice, he said,
"The main reason for riots in India is that the political parties here are engaged in appeasement of a particular religion, due to which the morale of prominent people of that particular religion increases so much and they believe that even if riots etc. if they get it done, not even a hair will be left unturned due to power protection."
He made these observations while summoning Muslim cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan in connection with the 2010 Bareilly riots case.
The Allahabad High Court was swift in expunging these remarks, noting that it was not expected of a judicial officer to express or depict personal or preconceived notions in orders.
Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra of the High Court opined that Diwakar had made certain unwarranted expressions containing political overtones and personal views.
"The judicial order is meant for public consumption and such type of order is likely to be misconstrued by the masses. It is expected from judicial officer that he should use a very guarded expression while focusing upon the issue in hand and should not use any observation which are tangent or alien to the core issue," the High Court said in its order.
Diwakar is the same judge who, in 2022, had allowed a court-appointed commissioner to inspect, conduct videography and gather evidence of the alleged presence of Hindu deities inside the Gyanvapi Mosque, located adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.
He had also later ordered the District Magistrate, Varanasi to seal the area where the 'Shivling' was found and to prohibit the entry of people into the area.
However, the Supreme Court later set aside this order and also transferred the case to another district judge in Varanasi.
"Having regard to the sensitivity of this civil suit, this case before the civil judge Varanasi shall stand transferred and be heard by a senior and experienced judicial officer of UP Judicial services. Thus case transferred from Civil Judge (senior division), Varanasi to District Judge, Varanasi," the Supreme Court had directed.
Two years after he passed the order in question, Diwakar claimed that he had received threats from a Muslim organisation for calling for an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque.
Diwakar stated that he had received a 32-page letter containing threats, and a criminal case was filed in Varanasi regarding the matter. He also expressed displeasure that no arrests had been made in connection with the case.
In June 2024, a Lucknow District and Sessions Judge wrote to the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court requesting security for Diwakar citing a threat to his life.
In his letter, Judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi of the NIA court referred to the case lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (UP ATS) against Adnan Khan, the man who purportedly wrote the letter. Khan was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly threatening Judge Diwakar.
Diwakar hails from Uttar Pradesh and completed his intermediate studies in 1999 and went on to earn his B.Com, LL.B, and LL.M degrees in 2002, 2005, and 2007, respectively.
In 2009, he was appointed as a munsif (civil judge, junior division) in Azamgarh, UP. In 2023, he was appointed as an additional district judge of a fast track court in Bareilly.
According to a report by The Print, Diwakar is the son-in-law of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Chandra Kishore Singh.
Singh, a three-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Maharajganj, had served as the Minister of Higher Education and held other portfolios under three BJP Chief Ministers - Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh. He was once considered close to Yogi Adityanath, the report claimed.
The judge is also active on social media, maintaining an official X (formerly Twitter) account where he shares motivational images and religious posts.