New Delhi, 3 Jul: Digital and social media need to be mandatorily regulated in the country to preserve the rule of law under the Constitution, Supreme Court Judge Justice J B Pardiwala said on Sunday, terming as \u201cdangerous\u201d the crossing of \u2018Lakshman rekha\u2019 on these platforms for \u201cpersonalised, agenda-driven attacks\u201d on the judges.
\nThe remarks by Justice Pardiwala at an event here come amid an uproar by a section over the strong oral observations of a vacation bench, in which he was a member, against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma for her controversial comments against Prophet Mohammed. The apex court had said that her \u201cloose tongue\u201d has \u201cset the entire country on fire\u201d and she should apologise.
\nThe observations of the bench, which had also refused to club the FIRs lodged against Sharma across the country, sparked a debate, including on digital and social media platforms, leading to some uncharitable comments against the judges also.
\n\u201cIn India, which cannot be classified as mature and an informed democracy, social and digital media is employed frequently to politicise purely legal and constitutional issues,\u201d Justice Pardiwala said and gave the illustration of the Ayodhya land dispute case.
\nHe said the trials by digital media are an undue interference in the justice dispensation system. \u201cCrossing that \u2018Lakshman rekha\u2019 many times, this is especially more worrisome,\u201d the judge, who has recently been elevated to the top court, said.
\nJustice Pardiwala was speaking at the second Justice HR Khanna Memorial National Symposium organised by Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow & National Law University, Odisha along with the Confederation of Alumni for National Law Universities (CAN Foundation).
\n\u201cDigital and social media needs to be mandatorily regulated in the country to preserve the rule of law under our Constitution\u2026
\n\u201cAttacks attempted at our judges for the judgements will lead to a dangerous scenario where the judges will have to pay greater attention as to what the media thinks rather than what the law actually mandates. This puts the rule of law on the burner ignoring the sanctity of the respect for the courts,\u201d he said.
\nSpeaking on the subject of \u2018Vox Populi vs. Rule of Law: Supreme Court of India\u2019, Justice Pardiwala said, \u201cJudicial verdicts cannot be the reflection of the influence of public opinion\u201d.
\nObserving that the rule of law has to prevail over the popular public sentiment, the apex court judge said that balancing the intent of the majority populace on one hand and meeting its demand and affirming the rule of law on the other is an \u201carduous exercise\u201d.
\n\u201cIt requires extreme judicial craftsmanship to walk the tightrope between the two that is where people think \u2018log kya kahenge, log kya sochenge\u2019 (What will people say, what will people think) is an enigma which haunts each and every judge whenever he is to pen down a judgement,\u201d he said.
\nTalking about digital and social media, he said these sections possess only the half-truth and start scrutinising the judicial process.
\nThey are also not aware of the concept of judicial discipline, binding precedents and inherent limitations of judicial discretion, he said.
\n\u201cThis section of people, the half-truth knowledgeable, is the real challenge to the dispensation of justice through the rule of law,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cSocial and digital media is nowadays primarily resorted to expressing personalised opinions more against the judges per se rather than a constructive critical appraisal of their judgements. This is what is harming the judicial institutions and lowering this dignity,\u201d he said.
\nJustice Pardiwala said the constitutional courts have always graciously accepted informed dissent and constructive criticism and the legal ethos always debarred the \u201cpersonalised, agenda-driven attacks\u201d on the judges.
\nHe said the judges must not participate in social media discussions as \u201cjudges never speak through their tongue, only their judgements.\u201d He concluded his address by saying \u201cjudiciary cannot exist independent of society but the rule of law is insurmountable.\u201d (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 3 Jul: Digital and social media need to be mandatorily regulated in the country to preserve the rule of law under the Constitution, Supreme Court Judge Justice J B Pardiwala said on Sunday, terming as \u201cdangerous\u201d the crossing of \u2018Lakshman rekha\u2019 on these platforms for \u201cpersonalised, agenda-driven attacks\u201d on the judges. The remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-194501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}