New Delhi: Condemning Justice Arun Mishra for praising PM at a conference conducted recently, the Supreme Court Bar Association on Wednesday called on Apex Court Judges to maintain Judicial independence and refrain from showing close proximity to political executives.
Justice Mishra who is set to retire on September 2 had praised Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” and a “versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally”.
Taking note of this, the SCBA said it “expresses its strong reservations of the statement and condemns it strongly,” adding, “the SCBA believes any such statement reflects poorly on independence of judiciary and so calls upon the judges not to make statements in future nor show any proximity or closeness to the executive, including higher functionaries.
SCBA believes that such proximity and familiarity may impact the decision-making process by judges and may give rise to justifiable doubts in the minds of the litigants about the outcome”, SCBA stated in its resolution.
The resolution was passed by circulation and signed by president Dushyant Dave,
vice-president Kailash Vasdev, joint secretary Rohit Pandey and treasurer Meenesh Dubey.
Secretary Ashok Arora debated the resolution should have been debated in the executive meeting and not adopted through circulation. However, 14 out of 21 members agreed on the resolution.
Mr Arora termed the decision as “unjustified and immoral” adding other senior executive members like Col R Balasubramanian, Arijit Prasad and A C Aggarwala as well as three-four women executive members had too sought a full-fledged discussion.
Arora said, “Dave is playing politics, sabotaging the cause of the Association. He is using the Association as platform for personal agenda and games. We will have to call for a GBM to get this sorted out.”
The SCBA also expressed concern over the law and order situation in Delhi.
Taking note of the “failure” of the law and order machinery in the national capital state, home to higher functionaries, SCBA resolved to take “appropriate proceedings in this regard before the court to get suitable orders to bring immediate normalcy in Delhi and to hold authorities responsible for the failure accountable”.