Rights group demands retraction over Madras HC CJ’s 'casteist' curriculum proposal

By A Representative 

The National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR) has issued a formal condemnation of remarks made by Justice S.A. Dharmadhikari, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, regarding the integration of ancient texts into Indian legal education. 

The controversy stems from a speech delivered on April 12, 2026, at the 2nd NLIU SBA Law Conclave in Bhopal, where Justice Dharmadhikari advocated for the mandatory teaching of the Manusmriti and Arthashastra to law students as a means of "rethinking Western influence" and addressing "colonial hangovers" in the Indian legal system.

​In a press statement released on April 30, 2026, NAJAR described the glorification of these texts as "unacceptable and unjust," calling for an immediate public retraction from the Chief Justice. While the Alliance acknowledged Justice Dharmadhikari’s stated goals of fostering empathy for common people and moving beyond colonial structures, they argued that any reform must align with the constitutional ethos rather than undermining it.

​The primary point of contention lies in the historical and legal nature of the Manusmriti and Arthashastra. NAJAR pointed out that these texts explicitly mandate a hierarchical, caste-based administration of justice that contradicts Article 14 (Equality before law) and Article 15 (Prohibition of discrimination) of the Indian Constitution. The Alliance noted that the Manusmriti has been famously condemned by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar for its rigid caste mandates and misogynistic doctrines, which include denying women a separate legal identity and prescribing severe corporal punishments for Shudras and Dalits while offering leniency to Brahmins for identical offenses.

​The Alliance emphasized that systemic bias is already a documented crisis in the modern Indian judiciary. According to data from the Prison Statistics India reports and various judicial studies:

- ​Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims consistently make up a disproportionate percentage of the prison population; as of recent assessments, while Scheduled Castes (SCs) make up about 16.6% of the general population, they often account for over 21% of convicts.

- ​Scheduled Tribes (STs), comprising roughly 8.6% of the population, represent approximately 10-12% of the prison population.

- ​Studies on death row inmates in India have shown that nearly 74% of those sentenced to death come from economically vulnerable backgrounds and marginalized castes.

​NAJAR argued that for a sitting Chief Justice to endorse texts that "normalize" such disparities risks legitimizing existing biases and undoing decades of progress toward judicial equality. The statement concluded by urging law universities across India to reject the introduction of regressive curricula and instead prioritize "constitutional morality" to ensure that the future of the legal fraternity is grounded in equity rather than ancestral oppression.