When a bench of the Supreme Court was constituted consisting of myself and Justice Gyansudha Mishra, the very first day that I was to sit with her I spoke to her for about 10 minutes before going into the Courtroom. I told her that while outside the Courtroom I was senior to her, inside the Courtroom we were equals, and therefore she should feel totally free to disagree with me in any case, and I would take no offence. I told her that the very purpose of a two Judge bench was that two heads are better the one. If one member of the bench does not freely express his/her opinion that purpose would be lost, and in fact it would become a single Judge bench. I also told her that she could put questions directly to a lawyer arguing a case, and there was no rule or practice that the junior Judge should put his/her question only through the senior Judge. When i said this to her she said to me that no senior Judge had ever spoken to her so graciously. I told her that a single persons opinion on a matter, however intelligent that person may be, was likely to be one sided and subjective and with personal prejudices, but when two or more persons are sitting together and examining a matter, the opinion which emerges is likely to be more objective and impartial, with personal angularities rubbed off. That is the purpose of having benches in Courts. I said the same thing to every junior Judge with whom I sat in the 3 High Courts where I had been, and in the Supreme Court. Unfortunately I cannot say that all senior Judges have the same approach. Once I was sitting on a bench with a senior Judge in the Allahabad High Court, and he started passing orders without even consulting me. I told him that he should consult me before passing orders. This made him very angry. I asked him what wrong had I said ? Was I not a member of the bench ? When I became a Judge of the Supreme Court I was put on a bench with a senior Judge. During the hearing of some cases i put some questions to the lawyers arguing the cases. This so much annoyed the senior Judge that he evidently spoke to the Chief Justice and I found that my bench had been changed, and I had been put on a bench with another Judge.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 09:57:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015