Judges are becoming victims of juicy gossip and slanderous social media posts,says Justice N.V. Ramana.
Mumbai: On Saturday, Justice Ramana was speaking at the virtual book launch “Judiciary, Judges and the Administration of Justice” written by former Supreme Court judge, Justice R. Banumathi. Referring to the tireless work of judge Bhanumathi and pointing out the misconception that judges enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in ivory towers, he made strong remarks on the media for making it difficult for the judges to work righteously.
He severely criticized the electronic and social media by saying that the media is running kangaroo courts, at times on several issues even the experienced judges find it difficult to take decisions and that is weakening the democracy.
“Of late we see media running kangaroo courts, sometimes on issues even experienced judges find difficulty to decide. Ill informed and agenda driven debates on issuing regarding justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy,” CJI Ramana said.
“By over stepping your responsibility you are taking our democracy two steps backward. Print media still has certain degree of accountability, whereas electronic media has zero degree of accountability,” the CJI said talking about electronic media.
He said that the agenda-driven debates and biased views being propagated by the media are weakening the system hence justice gets severely affected moving the democracy two steps back making the judges a victim of the gossips or posts.
He urged the electronic and social media to be more responsible and use its power as a voice to educate people, energizing the nature to build a progressive, prosperous, and peaceful India.
“If we want a vibrant democracy, we need to strengthen our judiciary and empower our judges,” he stated.
While telling the media to act wisely he explained that judges have to be humanistic and compassionate because their views have different consequences for different classes of people. Another aspect underlying the idea of discretion is that of allowing judges to do full justice, in any set of facts and circumstances. To do full justice, a good judge must be aware of the practical outcome of his decisions.
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