Video falsely claims head of Singaporean top court 'defended Indian judiciary's power'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on April 6, 2023 at 09:07
3 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

An Indian scholar has been misidentified as Singapore's chief justice in online posts that falsely claim footage shows the top judge calling on a New Delhi audience to defend the Indian judiciary's power to appoint judges. The clip -- viewed thousands of times -- in fact shows a speech by legal scholar G Mohan Gopal, not Singaporean Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. While Menon gave a speech during his visit to New Delhi in February, official transcripts contained no references to the Indian judiciary's power to appoint judges.

The one-minute, 41-second video was shared here on Facebook on March 8, 2023. It has been viewed more than 3,000 times.

"MUST WATCH: The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Singapore, Prof Mohan Gopa (sic), said at a seminar in New Delhi that the Constitution of India could be hijacked to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra," reads the video's caption, referring to the term meaning Hindu nationalism. "For this very reason and more he cautions against any direct govt role in the appointment of judges."

The man in the video is in fact G Mohan Gopal, a former director of the National Judicial Academy, while the actual head of the Supreme Court of Singapore is Sundaresh Menon.

In the clip, Gopal accuses the Indian government -- led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- of trying to install judges that favour its agenda in the judiciary.

He goes on to defend India's system of appointing judges -- the collegium -- whereby the chief justice and his four most senior colleagues recommend judges to sit on the Supreme Court and High Court before the Indian president can approve or deny the choices.

"We must preserve and protect the collegium because that is our best hope for now," he says.

A screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on March 28, 2023

The posts have surfaced amid a debate over the collegium, as critics say the system is vulnerable to nepotism.

Indian law minister Kiren Rijiju has called the collegium system "opaque" and appealed for an "alternative mechanism" to appoint judges, while the system's supporters have argued it is necessary for judicial independence.

The same footage was shared alongside a similar false claim here and here on Facebook; and here and here on Twitter.

Misidentified person

The video shows a watermark of Live Law, an India-based outlet that reports on legal issues.

A keyword search for the outlet's name revealed the original 24-minute 14-second video uploaded to its YouTube channel on February 21, 2023.

It is titled: "Theocratic Judges Who Find Source Of Law In Religion Than Constitution Increased: Dr Mohan Gopal."

According to Live Law's article on February 18, 2023, the video shows a seminar organised by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) on the "interference" from the Indian government in judicial appointments.

Gopal was one of the event's speakers.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Live Law's video (right):

A comparison of the screenshot of the video in the false posts (left) and Live Law’s video (right).

Indian media outlet The Wire also posted the video of the event held on February 15, 2023 here. The footage in the false posts starts at the Live Law video's 11-minute, 33-second mark.

The false posts surfaced online after Singapore's Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon visited India in February 2023. He delivered a lecture during his visit on the role of the judiciary in a changing world.

However, according to the transcript of his speech released by the Supreme Court of Singapore, he did not refer to the system for appointing judges in India, as stated in the false posts.

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