Remarks on Nupur Sharma: Judge slams social media opinions
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New Delhi: One of the justices of the Supreme Court bench that orally censured Nupur Sharma last week expressed concern over "personalized opinions" against judges on social media.
Justice J B Pardiwala called for mandatory regulation of such media to "preserve the rule of law" in the country, according to The Indian Express.
Expressing personalized opinions using social and digital media against judges rather than raising constructive criticism of judgments is harming the judicial institution, lowering its dignity, he said.
Constitutional courts have always accepted informed dissents and constructive criticisms, he said, adding that digital and social media needs to be mandatorily regulated in the country.
Justice Pardiwala was speaking on the topic 'Vox Populi vs Rule of Law: Supreme Court of India' at the second Justice H R Khanna Memorial National Symposium organised by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, and National Law University, Odisha, along with the Confederation of Alumni for National Law Universities (CAN Foundation), the report said.
It all started on Friday when the vacation Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Pardiwala had lashed out against Nupur Sharma over her remarks on prophet.
The bench blamed her for the murder at Udaipur saying she was "single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country".
Justice Pardiwala called what he said 'trials by digital media" unduly interfering the process of justice dispensation.
Pointing at the challenge to the dispensation of justice, he said when people who are "half-truth knowledgeable" with no understanding of judicial discipline, binding precedents and inherent limitations of judicial discretion scrutinise the judicial process, they present only the half-truth.
He further said that the attempted attack against justices could create a "dangerous scenario" of judges paying greater attention to what social media think rather than what the actually mandates are, according to the report.