New Delhi: The Supreme Court made it clear on Wednesday that calling any part of India as "Pakistan" runs counter to the country's territorial integrity.
The court responded after taking suo motu cognisance of video clips of a Karnataka High Court’s remarks earlier this month.
A five-judge bench, comprising Justices Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy , presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud sought a report from the high court’s Registrar General on the matter.
After perusing a report mentioning the public apology that the judge tendered on September 21, the bench said it was considering not to pursue the proceedings further in the interest of justice and the dignity of the institution.
After reading the text of the report submitted by the Registrar General, the top court said that the observations, made during the proceedings before the High Court of Karnataka were unrelated to the proceedings and should be ‘eschewed’.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud reportedly said: 'No one can call any part of India as Pakistan. It is fundamentally against the territorial integrity of the nation. The answer to sunlight is more sunlight and not to suppress what happens in court. The answer is not to close it down'.
The court also pointed out that ‘The perception of justice to every segment of society is as important as the rendering as the rendition of justice as an objective fact.’
The bench pointed out that ‘the heart and soul of judging is the need to be impartial and fair’, while acknowledging that fact that ‘each individual has a certain degree of accumulated predispositions based on our experiences of life’.
It is reported that the court made it clear that every judge should be aware of their own predispositions
The Supreme Court took note of the Karnataka High Court's justice 'Pakistan' remark On September 20, and sought report from the state's Chief Justice.
It came after Justice Srishananda was reportedly heard in a clip calling a Muslim-dominated locality in Bengaluru as "Pakistan".