Lucknow: From ordering the sealing of the contentious wuzu khana (ablution area) inside Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Mosque complex, to mentioning “threats” to himself and his family in a court ruling, to showering praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath — additional district judge (ADJ) Ravi Kumar Diwakar has made news more than once in the past two years.
The son-in-law of a BJP leader, Diwakar is currently in the middle of a row for praising Adityanath in an order he passed while hearing the 2010 Bareilly riots case on 5 March.
Stating that “the head of power should be a religious person because his life is not of enjoyment but sacrifice”, the judge said that Adityanath exemplified the concept of a “philosopher king propounded by Plato”.
“For example, the current peethadeshwar of the great Siddhapeeth Gorakhnath Temple, mahant baba shri Yogi Adityanathji, who is also the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has proven the above concept to be true,” said the judge in his order.
The order has drawn criticism from several quarters, with the All India Lawyers’ Association For Justice (AILAJ) asking Chief Justice of India (CJI) D. Y. Chandrachud to expunge from court records the “controversial, prejudicial, bigoted and unconstitutional statements, conclusions and direction”. The AILAJ also asked that “necessary action be taken in regard to the judge, including skill development at the judicial academy since he meets what the Supreme Court had called parameters for upgradation of skills”.
The judge, while adjudicating a revision plea filed by riot accused Bareilly cleric and Ittehad-e-Millat Council founder Tauqeer Raza Khan, also stated in his order that “Khan attempted to incite riots in the country and said derogatory things about the PM (Narendra Modi)” which his “wife (judge’s wife) also heard”, adding that she further said “if Khan could say derogatory things about the PM, he could do anything”.
The ADJ (fast track court), who was transferred from Varanasi to Bareilly in 2022, proceeded to describe his own experience of adjudicating the unrelated Gyanvapi Mosque case in his judgment on Raza’s plea.
“When the famous Gyanvapi case was being heard by me in the year 2022 in Varanasi, I received a threatening letter of about 32 pages from (a) Muslim organisation, in regard to which an FIR is registered in Varanasi district, but due to there being no arrest of any person till now, my mother who lives in Lucknow and younger brother Dinesh Kumar Diwakar, who is working as civil judge, fast-track court, in Shahjahanpur, remain worried about my safety and I about theirs,” his order reads.
It added: “Everyone in the family is worried about each other’s safety. One has to think many times before leaving the house. The fact is also noteworthy that ever since I have given the verdict in the Gyanvapi case, the attitude of people of a particular religion and officials towards me has become strange, as though I have committed some sin by giving the verdict in the Gyanvapi case.”
Diwakar had ordered a video survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque, which stands adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, in April 2022.
On Tuesday, the Allahabad High Court expunged “the unwarranted remarks containing political overtones and personal views” and observed that it was “not expected of a judicial officer to express or depict his personal or pre-conceived notions or inclinations in the matter”.
ThePrint reached Diwakar via calls and text messages but received no response. His sister-in-law refused to talk when this correspondent visited the judge’s Lucknow residence.
Also Read: ‘Peace uppermost on our minds’ — why SC transferred Gyanvapi mosque civil suit to senior judge
Who is Ravi Diwakar?
Ravi Kumar Diwakar was born in July 1980 to a family engaged in laundry work. He is the eldest of three brothers, one of whom is also a civil judge in Shahjahanpur while the other is a lawyer, a friend of the family’s told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
After completing intermediate studies in 1999, he earned B.Com, LL.B and LL.M degrees in 2002, 2005 and 2007, respectively, and was appointed as a munsif or civil judge (junior division) in 2009, according to details available on the website of the Allahabad High Court.
He was first posted as additional civil judge (junior division) in Azamgarh, and in a career spanning 14 years, he has been posted in UP’s Sultanpur, Budaun, Varanasi and Bareilly.
Diwakar was promoted to the post of civil judge (senior division) in March 2017 and came to Varanasi in April 2019 where he was posted as additional civil judge (senior division), before being appointed as secretary of the District Legal Services Authority in September 2019, a post on which he served till April 2020.
On 1 May, 2020, he was posted as special chief judicial magistrate of the Varanasi district court before being appointed as civil judge (senior division) on 12 April, 2021.
The same year, five Hindu women filed a petition in his court seeking permission to worship idols of Hindu deities allegedly situated on the outer wall of the Gyanvapi Mosque.
In April 2022, Diwakar’s court ordered that a video survey of the disputed Gyanvapi complex be conducted in the presence of a court commissioner. The survey ended on a controversial note after the Hindu side claimed that a shivling had been discovered in the wuzu khana inside the Gyanvapi premises even as the mosque side insisted that it was a fountain.
Hours after the survey ended on 16 May, 2022, Diwakar ordered that the wuzu khana be sealed and the entry of any person inside the area be prohibited.
The very next day, however, the Supreme Court instructed that the area where the shivling was allegedly found be protected, without impeding the access of Muslim devotees, and transferred the case from Diwakar’s court to the court of the district judge, stating that due to “the complexity and sensitivity of the case”, a “more seasoned hand” was required.
A month after that judgment, Diwakar found himself among the 619 judges who were transferred by the Allahabad High Court. He was shifted to the Bareilly district court, where he now serves as ADJ.
Social media activity, BJP links
Diwakar is married to Priyanka Singh and is the son-in-law of Archana Chandra, a member of the UP State Women Commission and the wife of late former minister Chandra Kishore Singh.
A three-time MLA from Maharajganj, Chandra Kishore had served as minister of higher education and held other portfolios under three BJP CMs — Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh — and was once considered close to Adityanath.
When Archana was named as a member of the state women’s commission, she had visited the Gorakhnath temple and thanked CM Adityanath for her appointment.
When contacted, she confirmed that Diwakar is her son-in-law but did not wish to speak further.
Diwakar has been active on social media, sharing quotes by legendary writers Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ and Munshi Premchand, and pamphlets about need to stop wasting food.
In a post put up on X on 19 February, 2023, Diwakar shared a video by a social media user which claimed that a researcher by the name of “Dr Howard Steingeril” had “collected all mantras and bhajans in the world” and “carried out a deep research and found that the gayatri mantra was the only mantra which produced 1,10,000 sound waves per second which was found to be the highest”.
Amazing fact. pic.twitter.com/2hcOKW2Wbr
— Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar (@DiwakarJudge) February 19, 2023
Diwakar captioned his post as an “amazing fact”.
However, a YouTube channel called “The truth Volt” that aims to “bring the truth in front of everyone on the basis of logical reasoning” stated that there was “no scientist in America by the name of Dr Howard Steingeril and that the photo used in the video was of the CEO of Arizona State University Public Enterprise, Dr Christopher B Howard”.
In July 2023, Diwakar drew attention when his birthday was celebrated in Varanasi’s Krittivaseshwar temple in the presence of former national president of Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS) Santosh Singh.
The VVSS is backing the five women petitioners who are spearheading the Shringar Gauri case, which is the lead case in the different suits pertaining to the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque legal tussle.
Demands for security, criticism of police
In 2022, soon after he gave the judgment directing that the Gyanvapi wuzu khana be sealed, Diwakar received a letter purportedly from one “Kashif Ahmed Siddiqui of Islamic Aghaz movement” which allegedly had objectionable references about him, his judicial function and the Gyanvapi judgement, and termed him a “an infidel idol-worshipper Hindu judge”.
Subsequently, Diwakar wrote to UP’s additional chief secretary (home) demanding security for himself and action in the case, after which security was provided to him and his family staying in Lucknow.
In 2023, Diwakar’s younger brother Dinesh Kumar Diwakar, who is serving as a judge in Shahjahanpur, wrote to the district police stating that his elder brother Ravi Diwakar had ordered a survey of the Gyanvapi premises and that an agent of the Popular Front of India had been caught near their Lucknow residence. He too demanded security from the Shahjahanpur police “on an immediate basis” and was provided so.
In September 2022, Ravi Diwakar attracted media attention when he criticised the Bareilly police after an FIR was lodged against a court amin who had gone to lock the gate of a hospital owned by BJP MLA M.P. Arya in compliance with a high court order.
The hospital manager had filed a police complaint alleging that the court official had got the “hospital’s electricity supply disrupted causing inconvenience to the patients”. After a report was submitted to his court by the amin, Diwakar criticised the police and called it an attack on the judiciary.
“Police-administration resorted to this to scare me but I am not going to be scared. My parents have asked me to be scared only of god. If I get scared of another power, then it will be better that I resign from judiciary. The police are resorting to arbitrariness. It was the aim of the Britishers to keep us enslaved and there has been no change in police conduct even after independence,” the judge had remarked in his order directing that action be taken against the circle officer and inspector of the area.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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