‘HC judges in no way inferior’: Supreme Court asks litigant, lawyer to apologise to Telangana judge for ‘scurrilous’ remarks

In its order, the bench, also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria, said: “We have noticed that nowadays it has become a trend among lawyers to criticise the judges of the High Courts and trial courts for no reason. It has also become a trend that whenever a political figure is involved in state, it is perceived that the petitioner has not got justice and seeks transfer…”

“The judges of the High Court are also constitutional functionaries; they enjoy the same immunity as judges of the Supreme Court. Under the constitutional scheme, the judges of the High Court are in no way inferior to judges in the Supreme Court. Though judges of the Supreme Court can reverse, affirm, or modify the decision of judges of the High Court, it has no administrative control over either the administration of the High Court or the judges of the High Court,” the bench said.

The court was hearing a suo motu contempt case it had initiated against N Peddi Raju, director of a housing society in Razole, accusing a High Court judge, who quashed a criminal case under the SC/ST Act against Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, of bias and impropriety.

“The allegations are against the High Court judge… We permit the respondents… to tender the unconditional apology before the High Court judge,” the SC said.

“We repeat that the courts have no pleasure in penalising the lawyers from acting in a manner which will amount to interference of this court.”

The SC observation comes a week after a two-judge bench of the SC, comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, on August 4 censured an Allahabad HC judge and directed that he should not be assigned any criminal cases till his retirement.

The court’s direction did not go down well with the legal community, with many complaining that the SC should not have gone to the extent of withdrawing work from an HC judge for having a different legal point of view. Several judges of the Allahabad High Court sought a full court reference to discuss the SC observations and directions against their colleague. The SC order was also seen as encroaching upon the powers of the High Court Chief Justice who is the master of the roster as far as the HC is concerned and is vested with powers to decide which judge hears what.

As the debate heated up, the SC bench on August 8 recalled parts of its earlier order wherein it had directed that the judge be not allotted criminal cases anymore. *The bench said it was doing so considering a request made by CJI Gavai. * The recall order also said, “we fully acknowledge that the Chief Justice of the High Court is the master of the roster. But as observed above, our directions are absolutely not interfering with the administrative power of the Chief Justice of the High Court.”