There Should Be No Criminal Contempt, If The Criticism is Well Founded It Is Fine, If It Is Not Forget About It: Justice Madan Lokur

"There should be no criminal contempt. Judges should not be hyper-sensitive about everything. If the criticism is well-founded, then it is fine. Even if it is not, forget about it! There are so many things in life!", said Justice Madan B. Lokur on Thursday.Speaking at a webinar on Keys to Governance: Independence of Judiciary organised by the India international Centre and DS Borker Memorial foundation, the former Supreme Court judge was addressing whether the Contempt of Courts Act ought to be relaxed.As regards the propriety of post retirement benefits, Justice Lokur said that it depends on each individual judge. He narrated how news channel yesterday were reporting the events in Washington DC- "One speaker talked about Republican judges and how President Trump had lost all cases even though most of them were heard by Republican judges. Can you imagine in India but some judge is aligned to a political party? As long as the judge has integrity, it does not matter what political alignment he has. This ties up with post retirement benefits also. If a judge has no integrity or little integrity, he will be swayed by political consideration""And this topic is not confined to the judges alone, but also extends to other senior bureaucrats, the Election Commissioner, the members of the Public Service Commission – a whole debate needs to take place", he stated.Agreeing that the Indian Judiciary has had a "tumultuous" 2019 and 2020, he chose not to "dwell on the past": "We must look at the future..as to what can the Judiciary do in 2021 to regain the prestige, which has been lost in part, and most importantly to deliver justice to the people of India""The judiciary needs to be far more transparent than it is at the moment", he suggested. He narrated how a few years ago, there was an informal discussion on the appointment of a Public Relations Officer or a spokesman for the Supreme Court. "There are several stories, rumours, comments doing rounds and clarifications are needed by the media, by the lawyers and by the citizens of the country. Having a PRO would have greatly helped in making the Supreme Court accessible to the people", he commented.Discussing the appointment of judges in India, Justice Lokur remarked that when a name has been recommended by the High Court collegium, everyone knows and that it is an "open secret". "So why not own up to it and say that we have considered this name and recommended it? In the US, there are hearings in the Senate where the judges are questioned. The UK Supreme Court invites applications from persons who wish to be appointed as judges. There is no harm in disclosing that such and such person is under consideration", he said."After the NJAC was held to be unconstitutional, suggestions from the public were called for. The Department of Justice was requested to look into them. Some 4000 suggestions came and were compiled and the lawyers had even placed them before the court during their arguments. They were all on the website of the Department of Justice and there was nothing hidden about it. That is how the Memorandum of Procedure was finalised. But it has not been officially signed!", continued the judge."I am not saying that the collegium system is perfect, but nothing else can come and take its place at the moment unless someone give a suggestion!", he stressed.He was of the view that "a lot more can be done so far as technology is concerned", recommending the use of computers for case management."The time has come for live streaming, particularly in the important court proceedings. This is something we need to look at very seriously", he urged. "One of the sitting Supreme Court judges (Justice S. K. Kaul) has recently said that the system of virtual court hearings is not working well. It is a shame if the Supreme Court of India cannot provide technologically-good services to the people!", he exclaimed.Former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, Mr N. Ram, in his turn, advanced how advocate Gautam Bhatia, in a "very robust criticism" of the performance of the Supreme Court in the last two years, asserted that one of the Chief Justices was in the process of becoming an "Executive Court" from being the "Rights Court". He cited the examples of the NRC in Assam, the procedural opacity in terms of sealed covers, the treatment of the Evidence Act in context of the Rafale case, and the unnecessary gratuitous and pompous judicial conduct, the treatment of fundamental rights like charity, particularly in the habeas corpus cases."The Supreme Court and many High Courts may be said to have become 'executive courts'. But we also have a good judges – there are those of the Allahabad High Court and the Karnataka High Court, who would uphold Fundamental Rights. Recently, we had the case of a young Hindu woman who had married a Muslim man out of her own will and the state had intervened, but the Allahabad Court supported her right", he continued.He expressed that while it would be an exaggeration...

There Should Be No Criminal Contempt, If The Criticism is Well Founded It Is Fine, If It Is Not Forget About It: Justice Madan Lokur

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