Should not toss out judgments because faces have changed: Justice Nagarathna

Justice Nagarathna said that “an evolved understanding of judicial independence warrants the assurance by our system of laws that a judgment once rendered by a judge will hold its anchor in time for it is written in ink and not in sand.”

Justice B V Nagarathna

Underlining the importance of judicial independence in maintaining rule of law, Supreme Court judge Justice B V Nagarathna Saturday said that “an evolved understanding of judicial independence warrants the assurance by our system of laws that a judgment once rendered by a judge will hold its anchor in time for it is written in ink and not in sand.”

At an ‘international convention’ on ‘the independence of judiciary: Comparative perspectives on rights, institutions and citizens’ at the O P Jindal Global University in Haryana, Justice Nagarathna said: “It is duty of the many participants of the legal fraternity and governance framework to respect a judgment for what it is, raise objections only in accordance with traditions embedded in law and not attempt to toss it out solely because the faces have changed.”

The remarks come barely days after a two-judge bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih red-flagged what it called was a “growing trend in” the top court “of verdicts pronounced by judges, whether still in office or not and irrespective of the time lapse since pronounced, being overturned by succeeding benches or specially constituted benches at the behest of some party aggrieved by the verdicts prior in point of time” and said this “would undermine” the “court’s authority”.

On November 18, a three-judge bench, by a 2:1 majority ruling, recalled the Court’s May 16 two-judge order that had struck down a Central government notification allowing grant of environmental clearance for projects ex post facto – in short, clearance for projects after commencement.

On Saturday, Justice Nagarathna said, “Judicial independence and supremacy of the law work together to guarantee that the rule of law will not be eroded by the political pressures in existence at any particular point in time. Insulating judges from political and extraneous influence is vital to this objective. Both these concepts are therefore important underpinnings to the rule of law which we cannot afford to take for granted.”

Ananthakrishnan G

Ananthakrishnan G. is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express. He has been in the field for over 23 years, kicking off his journalism career as a freelancer in the late nineties with bylines in The Hindu. A graduate in law, he practised in the District judiciary in Kerala for about two years before switching to journalism. His first permanent assignment was with The Press Trust of India in Delhi where he was assigned to cover the lower courts and various commissions of inquiry. He reported from the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India during his first stint with The Indian Express in 2005-2006. Currently, in his second stint with The Indian Express, he reports from the Supreme Court and writes on topics related to law and the administration of justice. Legal reporting is his forte though he has extensive experience in political and community reporting too, having spent a decade as Kerala state correspondent, The Times of India and The Telegraph. He is a stickler for facts and has several impactful stories to his credit. ... Read More