Irony Lost On Lordships? Supreme Court To Look Into Curbing Lawyers’ Freedom To Speak Publicly About Cases

A Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha on Wednesday (6 February) agreed to look into the question of whether curbs may be placed on lawyers revealing their views about sub judice matters and the judges assigned to them, reports The Hindu.

The bench was hearing contempt pleas submitted by the government and the Attorney General of India alleging that advocate Prashant Bhushan was in contempt of court for tweeting criticism of the apex court’s choice of interim CBI director.

The consensus of the bench was that “though the flash of cameras and media attention may seem irresistible to some, a line needed to be firmly drawn”.

The court noted that “freedom carries with a responsibility” and specifically highlighted instances of lawyers criticising judges in front of the media, who were not made privy to views of judges as the latter’s code of conduct prohibited them from speaking in public. Due to this, only one side of the story was being narrated.

“The judiciary should be protected,” Justice Mishra remarked while stating that the situation was as “if the Bar is out to kill the judiciary.”

The bench also spoke about how some advocates would go to the media at the very beginning of submitting their petitions and thus all the initial allegations are being made public, even though many could be later withdrawn or the case itself being defeated in the court; nonetheless, the damage would already have happened.

Incidentally last year, four judges of the apex court Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph had conducted a press conference slamming then chief justice of India Dipak Misra for arbitrarily allotting important matters among judges.