Points to Ponder for 14-Jan-2018:
In the last Post I wrote about the Supreme Court. Within just
a couple of days, an unprecedented event took place. Four Senior-Most Judges
expressed concern that there have been instances where cases having far
reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by
the Chief Justices of the Court selectively to the benches “of their
preference” without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be
guarded against at all costs.
Now, let me try to
analyse this impartially without prejudice to anybody, point by point:
They say that the cases are assigned to selective Judges or Benches for what reasons – must be for a verdict favourable to the CJI. It means that:
(1) this verdict would be unfavourable to the majority of the remaining Judges, and
(2) if the assignment of cases were done on the “Rational” basis, the verdicts may be different.
Now this is the
catch. Today, in the age of high technology, it’s very difficult to accept
different verdicts from different benches given the same set of facts.
Well, it happens
all the while, all types of courts have different opinions and verdicts. But in
the Supreme Court itself, if judgments differ, then we have to seriously think
it over.
And, most
importantly, the four Judges inadvertently admit that Judges can have different
opinions and there is a chance of getting influenced by the external or
internal factors.
