The Supreme Court on Wednesday instructed the judges not to be careless while commenting on any community. CJI DY Chandrachud's bench was hearing a case of controversial remarks by a Karnataka High Court judge. In which the judge called a part of Bengaluru as Pakistan.
CJI said that you cannot call any part of the country as Pakistan. This is against the basic principle of unity of the country. A video of Karnataka High Court Justice V Sreeshananda's remarks went viral, after which the Supreme Court itself began hearing the case.
After the video went viral, the Karnataka High Court banned live streaming of proceedings without permission.
On this, the CJI said, 'To bring maximum transparency in the court process, it needs to be brought into maximum light. Whatever happens in court should not be suppressed. Don't stop everything.”
After this, Justice Sreeshanand apologized to the Supreme Court. The CJI bench has accepted the apology and closed the case.
3 Advice of Supreme Court Judges
- Insensitive comments show a person's biased views, especially when they are directed at a particular gender or community. During the hearing, the judge should avoid comments which are against any community or which are harmful to it.
- We are closing this case, but judges and lawyers in the electronic age must take appropriate note and adapt their behavior accordingly.
Additional responsibility on those present in court- SC on live streaming
- During the hearing, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta referred to a message found on social media platform X. SG termed this message as too harsh. He said that social media cannot be controlled and is very dangerous.
- To this the CJI said, “The answer is not to close the doors, not to suppress whatever is happening in the court.”
- The bench said, “The reach of social media is vast, including reporting of court proceedings. In such a situation, most High Courts have now adopted new rules for live streaming.
- This was needed in the time of covid. To deliver justice, the courts adopted video conferencing and live streaming, which was an important means of delivering justice for the courts at that time.
The Supreme Court said-
Everyone involved in the judiciary, judges, lawyers and litigants must be aware that court proceedings are not limited to those present in the court, but also those who watch it.
The Supreme Court said that the spirit of justice is to be fair and equitable. Every judge should be aware of his attitude. Based on this awareness we can honestly give a fair judgement. We are emphasizing this because it is important for everyone to understand that the decision should be based only on those values which are mentioned in the Indian Constitution.
The Karnataka High Court banned live streaming of the proceedings
A day after the YouTube channel's video clip went viral, the Karnataka High Court issued a disclaimer half an hour before starting live streaming of its court proceedings. In which video recording was banned without permission. Legal action will be taken against those violating the order, it was said.
The message said that no person, organization, print, electronic and social media platform shall record, share or publish the live-streaming proceedings. Prior permission is required for this.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
