Maintain demography for Constitution to survive, says HC judge

CHENNAI: The Indian Constitution’s survival hinges on the nation’s demographic profile, and would cease to exist if the profile was altered, said Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court. Joining the heated debate that the comments sparked, noted lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said the Constitution may not survive if judges have such a mindset.

The judge made the comment while addressing an event when he made a brief reference to the making of the Constitution between 1947-49 and its coming into force in 1950. “For all of us, the ultimate is only the Constitution authored by Dr BR Ambedkar and I say this happily with pride. There is Constitutional morality and we must not go beyond it at all,” justice Swaminathan said.

After prefacing his comment on Constitution vis-a-vis the nation’s demography, he said his view could turn out to be “slightly controversial” but he was not “very much worried about it” as he had already made a mention on the matter in one of his judgments.

“If this Constitution is to continue as it is for all the time to come, I am emphasising this, when the Constitution was made, we had a demographic profile of our own. Only till such time this demographic profile continues, this Constitution will survive as it is; if this demographic profile is altered, this Constitution will cease to exist,” he said.

The Constitution could survive only if the demographic profile remained as it is, and if people belonging to “Bharatiya Dharma and Samprataya” continued to be within its fold, he said. “I am a judge and I cannot say anything more. You should understand,” he said.

He also recounted two incidents and said it was to show the divergence from the nation’s culture and heritage and not giving due importance to learning one’s mother tongue despite claiming to be an enthusiast of the Tamil language.

The remarks were made during a book release function on April 2, but the storm began to build after many started debating for and against it on social media.