The person speaking in the video is not Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon

Misleading Political

A video of renowned legal academician G. Mohan Gopal is shared as Chief Justice of Singapore Sundaresh Menon’s remarks on theocratic judges in the Indian Judiciary.

A video clip of a person delivering a speech has been making the rounds on social media. Here, the speaker expresses his concern at the sharp rise in theocratic, traditionalist judges who consider religion, and not the constitution, to be the source of the law. He adds that this is the first phase of a two-part strategy to establish a Hindu Rashtra by 2047.The users who shared the video claim that it shows Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Singapore, commenting on how the Indian constitution was being hijacked by a few theocratic judges in order to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra.

The caption of the post states that “The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Singapore, Sundaresh Menon, speaks on how the Constitution of India could be hijacked by Religious mindset judges to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra. ”. 

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Fact Check-

We conducted a reverse image search on Google with the keyframes of the video and the results led us to an article published by Live Law, that featured the image of the same person seen speaking in the viral video. According to the report “Renowned legal academician Dr Mohan Gopal delivered a speech at a seminar organized by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) Executive Interference in Judicial Appointments. In his speech, Dr. Gopal raised concerns about the appointment of judges with political bias and highlighted the motive of hijacking the judiciary and establishing a Hindu theocracy in the country”. During his speech, Gopal highlighted how the judiciary could be hijacked to establish a Hindu theocracy. He further urged the collegium to diversify the judiciary and make it a representative one

 Dr. Mohan Gopal, a well-known legal educationist and the Former Director of the National Judicial Academy made these remarks while giving a speech on “Executive interference in judicial appointments” organized on 18 February, 2023 by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms. 

In further search, we found the same video uploaded on the Live Law YouTube channel on 21 February 2023. Live Law published the video with a description, “Theocratic Judges Who Find Source of Law in Religion than Constitution Increased: Dr Mohan Gopal”. 

We later checked Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. This brought us to an article dated February 3, 2023. Chief Justice of Singapore Sundaresh Menon watched the proceedings of the Supreme Court alongside the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. Sundaresh Menon was the chief guest at the event to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the establishment of the Supreme Court on 03 February 2023. But he did not make any such comments as mentioned in the post on Indian Judiciary and about the appointment of judges in the country.

Taking account of these evidences we can clearly understand that the person in the viral video is Dr Mohan Gopal and not Chief Justice of Singapore Sundaresh Menon . You can see a comparison below.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo discovered that the claim made along the viral video to be Misleading. A video of renowned legal academician Prof: G. Mohan Gopal is shared as Chief Justice of Singapore Sundaresh Menon’s remarks on theocratic judges in the Indian Judiciary.

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Title:The person speaking in the video is not Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon

Fact Check By: Usha Manoj 

Result: Misleading