By Indradeep Bhattacharya

In an interim order, a Division Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti of the Supreme Court on Monday, July 22, prohibited the enforcement of the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand directives to restaurants along the Kanwar Yatra routes to display the names of the owners and employees. The Bench said the eateries might only be required to display the kind of food they were selling.

While hearing a bunch of petitions against the directives issued by the two BJP-ruled states, Justice S V N Bhatti recounted his experiences of eating at a veg restaurant owned by a Muslim in Kerala.

Justice Bhatti joined the Kerala high court at Ernakulam on March 19, 2019. He was the Acting Chief Justice of the high court from April 24, 2023, till he became the Chief Justice on June 1, 2023. On July 14, 2023, he was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court of India.

During an exchange in the courtroom with advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who was one of the petitioners, Justice Bhatti remarked that there was a veg restaurant owned by a Hindu and another owned by a Muslim in Kerala and he used to go to the latter as it was “maintaining international standards with regard to safety, cleanliness and hygiene…”

Several Right-wing social media handles took exception to Justice Bhatti’s remarks on his choice of an eatery in Kerala.

Raushan Sinha, who runs the X handle @MrSinha_, tweeted whether according to Justice Bhatti “Hindus don’t maintain international standard (probably hygiene) in their restaurants, MusIims do?”, and whether “since he prefers MusIim restaurants, he wants all Hindus to do the same?”

https://x.com/MrSinha_/status/1815328074197536861?t=sbLU9ibqSHcO2Yu4f3YRGw&s=19

Vijay Patel, who runs the handle @Vijaygajera on X and calls himself an investigative reporter, tweeted that Justice Bhatti had said that “Hindus have substandard restaurants while Muslims maintain international standards!”

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