After SC rebukes Allahabad HC judge for ‘unreasoned’ order, Bar association writes to CJI against such ‘stigmatic’ remarks

Days after a Supreme Court Bench criticised an Allahabad High Court judge for passing an ‘unreasoned’ bail order in a dowry death case, the Oudh Bar Association associated with the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court has written to the Chief Justice of India, raising concern regarding ‘repeated adverse remarks concerning the Allahabad HC’.

In an order on February 9, a Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan had termed the order passed by Justice Pankaj Bhatia of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad HC as one of the “most shocking and disappointing orders that it has come across over a period of time”.

Stating that the SC’s remarks had a ‘huge demoralising and chilling effect on him’, Justice Bhatia requested the Chief Justice of the High Court not to assign him bail cases in the future.

Against this backdrop, the Oudh Bar Association, in a letter to CJI Surya Kant written on February 18, has urged him to advise all Supreme Court judges to avoid passing ‘stigmatic’ orders which have a chilling effect on the working capacity of a particular judge against whom the orders are passed.

The lawyers association pointed out that the judges are already working under mounting pressure from the ever-increasing pendency of cases.

“…there is sometimes overreach by our Apex Court in passing remarks on the capability of a judge under an impugned order, which has serious jolting psychological effect on his or her judicial mind,” the letter of the bar association reads.

It added that the Bar is the mother of the Bench and is the best judge to assess the performance of every Judge in the justice delivery system which runs on two parallel wheels.

“….any such remark by Apex Court adverse to the dignity of a judge on the judicial side has no doubt chilling effect not only on the particular judge but on members of the Bar at large,” the bar association said, and requested the CJI to review and expunge the ‘adverse’ remark made against Justice Pankaj Bhatia by the SC Bench.