Judges at every temple of justice should at all times act and conduct themselves very meticulously truly ensuring the factual independence of the judiciary. A Supreme Court Judge may be a friend of the Prime Minister. He may personally worship him as a great hero or most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader, though it’s all undesirable. However, it’s sheer indiscretion on the part of a judge to say so publicly and that too at a court organized function. Undoubtedly it’s likely to be mistaken as an attempt by a judge to canvas for the Prime Minister. This is clearly breaching the laid down Lakshmana Rekha.
Secondly, such words of praise spoken by a judge show prima facie his bias towards the Prime Minister. Hence, to keep public faith in the impartiality of the judiciary, the judge shouldn’t hear any case where the Prime Minister is involved directly or even indirectly.
Last year, a now-retired Supreme Court judge had courted controversy by saying that “PM was a versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally” while speaking at a public function. The Supreme Court Bar Association later passed a resolution criticizing the judge’s comments.
Indian judiciary though strong seems to have lost its image as a crusader due to a lack of passion in protecting liberty. It has lost the toughness to take on the Government whenever it’s found breaching the constitutional mandate. While there is a very disturbing disquiet over the slippery slope on which judicial values are slithering, the highest standards of judicial independence must be ensured by warding off even the faintest trace of governmental influence on the judiciary.
Caroline Kennedy had so very rightly said: “The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.”
