The Supreme Court on Wednesday expunged the unwarranted comments passed by a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge criticising an Apex Court order that had stayed proceedings in his court.
The Apex Court while taking suo motu action on Justice Rajbir Sehrawat’s remarks by which he said that “the Supreme Court thinks itself to be more Supreme than it is”, noted that this is most unfortunate and brings disrepute to the entire judicial system.
A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy, said that the observations made by the High Court judge were a “matter of grave concern”.
However, the bench refused to initiate contempt proceedings but issued a warning to the High Court judge, saying that greater caution is expected from him in the future while dealing with the orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court’s division bench.
The High Court bench of Justice Rajbir Sehrawat had sounded a “note of caution” for the Supreme Court “to be more specific in causing legal consequences through its order”.
The single-judge bench of the High Court made these observations in its order passed on July 17 over an order passed by the Supreme Court bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal on May 3.
The video clip of the proceedings of the single judge, where he made unnecessary remarks, is already in wide circulation on social media.
The bench said that the Judicial discipline in the context of the hierarchical nature of the system is intended to preserve the dignity of all institutions whether at the level of District Court, High Court or Supreme Court.
The bench cautioned the judge that the gratuitous observations in connection with the previous orders passed by the Supreme Court were unwarranted.
Compliance with these orders is not a matter of choice but a matter of bounden constitutional obligation. Parties may be aggrieved by an order. Judges should never be aggrieved by an order passed by a higher constitutional forum, the Apex Court held.
Such observations tend to bring the entire judicial machinery into disrepute. This affects not only the dignity of this Court but also the High Court, the Apex Court said.
The Supreme Court turned down the arguments of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General who sought that contempt proceedings should be initiated against the High Court judge, saying that they were inclined to exercise a degree of restraint in pursuing a further cause of action.
The bench noted that a division bench of the High Court had already taken suo motu notice of Justice Sehrawat’s order and had stayed it.
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The bench said that since the observations tend to undermine the authority of the Supreme Court, it was ordering that they be expunged
