Lets treat lower judiciary with more respect

The subordinate judiciary is at the receiving end not only from the litigant,as one side has to lose,but also from the public,the politician,the media,from unscrupulous lawyers,and,more importantly,from its superiors in the judicial hierarchy. It is this fear in the lower judiciary that is,in many ways,responsible for the creation of excessive and avoidable litigation in the higher courts as subordinate judges play safe and let judges higher in the hierarchy take decisions in controversial matters, he said.

The last two decades of my judicial career have been extremely satisfying, he began,as CJI S H Kapadia watched,There is however one aspect on which I must make a comment. This is the persistent sniping that goes on at the judicial system.

The criticism is sometimes justified and it has to be accepted in that spirit but I find that some remarks are unnecessarily sweeping and uncharitable,as my experience shows,that for every bad judge there are many good ones whose contributions are completely ignored, said the retiring judge,who was described by the CJI as the judge who never crossed the Lakshman Rekha. The CJI said Justice Bedis judgments were a balance between activism and restraint. Attorney General G E Vahanvati said Justice Bedi was gentle,decent and humble.