PANAJI
The Bombay High Court has ordered the transfer of a defamation suit filed by Sanatan Sanstha against rationalist Hamid Dabholkar and four others from a civil court in Ponda, Goa to Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
In an order dated September 3 and made public on September 4, Justice N J Jamadar accepted the plea for transfer, citing the long history of hostility between the organisation and its critics. The Bench said the concerns raised by the petitioners over their safety were “reasonable and genuine.”
“If the animosity bordering on enmity between the Sanatan Sanstha and the applicants is considered, then the apprehension raised by the petitioners (Dabholkar and journalists including Nikhil Wagle) in their pleas is reasonable and genuine,” the Bench observed.
The High Court further noted that the murders of rationalists and activists critical of the Sanstha strengthened the fears of the petitioners. It directed that the case be shifted to the court of Civil Judge Senior Division in Kolhapur “in the interest of justice.” However, on the Sanstha’s request, the operation of the order has been stayed for six weeks.
The right-wing organisation had filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Dabholkar -- son of murdered rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar -- and journalists including Wagle, after they blamed the group for Dabholkar’s murder in 2013.
The petitioners had approached the High Court in 2021 seeking transfer of the case from Goa -- where the Sanstha is headquartered -- to Maharashtra, apprehending a serious threat to their life and risk if compelled to attend hearings in Goa.
Justice Jamadar referred to the findings of a Pune sessions court, which in 2024 convicted two men for Dr Dabholkar’s murder. The trial court had recorded that Sanatan Sanstha and other right-wing organisations were bitterly opposed to Dabholkar’s campaign against superstition and that witnesses had established links between the accused and the Sanstha.
Although the Central Bureau of Investigation could not identify the mastermind behind the killing, the trial court’s findings, Justice Jamadar said, were sufficient to instil fear in the minds of the applicants.
The court also cited the violent killings of other critics of the Sanstha and similar ideologies, including CPI leader Govind Pansare in 2015, scholar M M Kalburgi in 2015, and journalist Gauri Lankesh in 2017.
“Hamid Dabholkar’s consistent criticism of the Sanatan Sanstha and his testimony in his father’s murder trial amplified the risks of holding the trial in Goa,” the order stated.
Dr Dabholkar was fatally shot on August 20, 2013, while on his morning walk near Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune. His son continues to speak against Sanstha’s ideology.
