Imputations (against court) and gradings damage the institution: Supreme Court judge

He was speaking at a webinar on ‘Freedom of speech in times of Covid-19’, organised by the Madras High Court Bar Association.

The comments came days after former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur said in an article that the apex court deserved an ‘F’ grade for the manner in which it handled the migrant crisis.

Without naming anyone, Justice Kaul said, “The judiciary performs a particular role. It doesn’t have an opportunity to respond. Criticism of a viewpoint, a judgment, there is no problem because I always believe the judgment is an opinion… But when imputations and gradings start being made, I think it damages the very institution.”

He continued, “The unfortunate part is some of us who have been part of this institution… there is the problem then of ‘after me the deluge’, which is that since we are gone, everything is going wrong. I would say that itself is a danger.”

“We are an evolving society, things will evolve… people in the past who speak about it also committed many mistakes and blunders. But to remain in the news has also become a problem. Therefore the tendency to be more critical and critical in a manner which I would say crosses certain lines is a problem also…”

The judge said, “I hope there is a rethink on this process” and added that “while criticism is always information that must come to us, I think there are some boundaries which need to be maintained. Because otherwise it becomes part of a disinformation which causes doubts on institutions and I don’t think that’s good for any system because if you mistrust everybody, mistrust every system, then you have no system. Then you have anarchy. If you have to prevent anarchy, faith in institutions is important.”

Justice Kaul said freedom of speech is the bedrock of any democratic system and rued that “we are becoming increasingly intolerant of opinions that do not match ours and this is prevalent in all sections unfortunately” with the result that “what is perceived as the middle ground becomes the casualty”.