The Hindu : National : High Courts should not play to the gallery or make unnecessary remarks

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Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

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High Courts should not play to the gallery or make unnecessary remarks

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 14. The Supreme Court has said that the High Courts should not play to the gallery or care for any applause from anyone or even need to take cudgels against any one making unnecessary remarks.

A Bench, consisting of Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat, while expunging the objectionable remarks made by the Gujarat High Court against the human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad (who took up the cause of key witness, Zaheera Shaikh in the Best Bakery case) observed that no one should be condemned unheard.

The Bench was of the view that the uncalled for observations on the professional competence or conduct of a counsel and any person or authority or harsh or disparaging remarks should not be made unless absolutely required or warranted for deciding the case.

The Bench noted that even while dealing with recalcitrant subordinate judicial officers, the Supreme Court had advised restraint.

The judges stated that Ms. Setalvad was not even a party before the High Court and while so "it is beyond comprehension as to how the learned Judges in the High Court could afford to overlook such a basic and vitally essential tenet of `Rule of Law', that no one should be condemned unheard and risk themselves to be criticised for injudicious approach and/or render their decisions vulnerable for challenge on account of violating judicial norms and ethics."

The High Court, in its judgment upholding the acquittal of all the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case last December, had severely criticised the human rights activist.

The Supreme Court had on April 12 set aside the acquittal of the accused and directed a retrial of the case in a Maharashtra court.

Allowing Ms. Setalvad's appeal of seeking a direction to expunge the remarks, the Bench termed the High Court observations against her prima facie "irrelevant".

"Time and again the Supreme Court had deprecated the practice of making observations in judgments, unless the persons in respect of whom comments and criticisms were being made were parties to the proceedings,'' Mr. Justice Pasayat, writing for the Bench, said.

"It is certainly not desirable for the courts to make any comments or observations reflecting on the bona fides or credibility of any person or their actions. Judicial decorum requires [a] dispassionate approach and the importance of issues involved for consideration is not justification to throw to [the] winds [the] basic judicial norms or mere personal perceptions as saviours of the situation,'' the Bench said.

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