Supreme Court rebukes High Court judge: Can’t call any part of India as Pakistan

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, September 25, 2024: The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on Karnataka High Court judge Justice V Srishananda over his controversial remark on a locality in Bengaluru during a recent hearing and said that one cannot call a region of India as Pakistan.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said the judge had apologised for his remarks and called for elicit modulation of judges’ behaviour in the era of the electronic age.

"Since the judge of the High Court is not party before us, we will not make further observations. While we are inclined to close the proceedings, we hope that the demands placed on all institutions in the electronic age will elicit modulation of behaviour," the CJI said.

"No one can call any part of India as Pakistan. It is fundamentally against the territorial integrity of the nation. The answer to sunlight is more sunlight and not to suppress what happens in court. The answer is not to close it down," he said.

The Supreme Court said that such controversies should not trigger a demand to stop livestreaming of court proceedings. It underlined that livestreaming is present in most high courts in the country as it emerged as a need during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The court also said that the facility has become an important outreach facility for people to access justice anywhere.

"All parties, judges, lawyers, litigants must be aware that proceedings reach audiences who are well beyond the physical precints of the court and thus all must be aware of the wider impact of observations on the community at large. As judges we are conscious of the fact that each individual has a set of predispositions based on early or later experiences of life," the bench said.

"It is important that judges are aware of their own predispositions and the heart and soul of a judge is when they are impartial and only then can we deliver objective and fake justice," it added.

The Supreme Court said that Karnataka High Court judge Justice Srishananda asserted that some observations made by him during the hearing on September 21 were quoted out of context. It also said that the judge called his remarks unintentional and that it was not aimed at anyone in society.

"He has tendered an apology. Bearing in mind the apology that has been tendered by the High Court judge in the open court proceedings, we would consider it in the interest of justice and dignity of the institution to not pursue these proceedings further. We have consciously desisted from issuing notice to the judge of the High Court in the interest of judicial dignity," the court said.

CJI Chandrachud said that casual observations can indicate a degree of bias particularly when they are directed against a gender or community. "The text of the report amply indicate that the observations made were unrelated and should have best been eschewed," he added.

On September 20, the Supreme Court took note of the Karnataka High Court’s justice ’Pakistan’ remark and sought a report from the state’s Chief Justice.

Recently, videos of Justice Srishananda had gone viral on social media. In one clip, the judge can be seen telling a woman advocate during a hearing on a landlord-tenants’ dispute that she appeared to know a great deal about the opposing party and suggested that she might even be able to identify the colour of their undergarments.

In another clip, the judge can be heard calling a Muslim-dominated locality in Bengaluru "Pakistan".