Don't Know Why Delhi Riots Order Upset The Government, It Was The Right Thing To Do : Justice Muralidhar

Former Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar said that he did not know why the order passed by him in relation to the Delhi riots upset the Union Government. At a conclave organised by online news portal 'The South First' at Bengaluru, a member in the audience asked Justice Muralidhar about the perception that his order in the Delhi riots case cost him the elevation to the Supreme Court."During the Delhi riots case, you made a late night judgment. And there are arguments that you upset the government and you did not make it to the Supreme Court. What are your views on this?" the person asked.Justice Muralidhar replied :"I don’t know what is it that upset... Any other judge should have done the same thing. Every other colleague of mine in the Delhi High Court would have reacted the same way. I don't think anybody else would have acted differently. So, what is that upset the government, I am as clueless as you are, if at all they were upset. I only have this to say. It does not matter, because many did people feel that it was the right thing to do. In fact, it was. I was later told that many lives were saved with that intervention by the Court," Justice Muralidhar said.Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde said in response, "It is written somewhere, if you save one life, you have saved the humanity. I am very proud of you for that."In the midst of the communal riots that gripped Delhi in February 2020, Justice Muralidhar had convened a midnight hearing at his residence to pass urgent orders to evacuate a group of patients who were stranded at a hospital in a riot-hit region. The order was necessary as the patients, who required emergency medical treatment at a bigger specialist hospital, could not be moved due to the riot situation. Later in the same day(February 26, 2020), Justice Muralidhar passed another order asking the Delhi Police to decide within 24 hours on registering FIR against certain BJP leaders for allegedly making provocative remarks. In a dramatic hearing, Justice Muralidhar expressed surprise when the Delhi Police claimed ignorance about the speeches, some of which had gone viral in the social media. Justice Muralidhar directed the clips of the speech to be played in the Court for the police officer who was present there and passed a stern order to take a decision on registering the FIR, despite the strong opposition by the Delhi police. On the same night, the Union Government notified his transfer to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.By Not Standing Up For Justice S Muralidhar, Supreme Court Collegium Fails Yet Another Independent JudgeAt The South First conclave, Justice Muralidhar was in a conversation with Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde on the topic "Who wins who loses in the Judicary-Executive faceoff.”Hegde started the session by saying that Justice Muralidhar was in a distinguished group of judges like Justice Chagla, Justice PD Desai who could not make it to the Supreme Court and said that he was a "victim of the collegium." In this backdrop, he asked Justice Muralidhar the criteria he would rely on to pick judges.Justice Muralidhar said that the judiciary as an institution must be representative and that the recent collegium statements place an emphasis on adequate representation on criteria such as gender, caste ,religion, geography etc."What could be safely said is that, within these criteria, choose the best," he said. A brilliant lawyer does not necessarily become a good judge. The capacity to be objective and fair is the yardstick to pick a good judge, he opined. More important is the capacity to decide.On Judicial independence There is a perspective that if there is a strong executive, the judiciary will be weak and vice-versa, he said during the conversation. He said that a "perceptible shift" in the dynamics between the judiciary and the executive happened in 1971 when the Congress won absolute majority in the Parliament. He reminded that the debate about judicial independence must address all levels of judiciary."When we talk about independence of judiciary, the public tend to overlook that there are several courts in the hierarchy. How independent is a Magistrate's functioning or a District Judge's functioning? We don't seem to be focusing on it at all and I think we are making a serious mistake. There are some 14,000 odd judges at that level and there are about 1000 odd High Court judges and 34 Supreme Court judges. That's the pyramid. It would be a mistake to confine the discussion on independence of judiciary to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. Of course, they are the constitutional courts. But when we talk of the independence of the judiciary and the control of executive of the judiciary, we should talk of all levels. If the Magistrate is to work in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, what does that mean to the independence of judiciary." he said."So let's talk about the executive control of judiciary at all levels. The facilities for judges are provided by the ...

Don't Know Why Delhi Riots Order Upset The Government, It Was The Right Thing To Do : Justice Muralidhar

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Justice Muralidhar said that the Collegium sometimes strategically hold back a recommendation if they feel that the name will not get government approval.

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