The Allahabad High Court Bar Association praised the Supreme Court for deleting its earlier critical remarks against Justice Prashant Kumar, calling it a step to protect judicial independence. The SC clarified it never intended to embarrass the judge and acted to uphold the judiciary’s dignity.
Prayagraj (UP): On August 7, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (AHCBA) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to remove its earlier remarks made against High Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar. Speaking to the press, AHCBA President Anil Tiwari said,
“The Supreme Court realised that it had made a wrong order, withdrawing which is a very good step.”
Tiwari further added that the earlier Supreme Court order dated August 4 had harmed the independence of the High Court.
He stated,
“The Supreme Court’s order of August 4 had very badly affected the independence of the High Court. Since the High Court is not subordinate to the Supreme Court, such comments should not be made. The Supreme Court realised the mistake and withdrew its comment.”
On Friday, the Supreme Court clarified that it had no intention to embarrass or cast aspersions on Justice Prashant Kumar.
The court formally deleted its previous observations, which had criticised him for allowing criminal proceedings in what was essentially a civil dispute case.
The controversy began on August 4, when a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan noted that it was well established in law that criminal proceedings should not be initiated in matters that are purely civil in nature.
At that time, the bench observed that it was expected of the High Court to follow this settled principle. The bench had commented that allowing such criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the legal process.
However, while deleting those remarks on Friday, the Supreme Court said its earlier observations were intended to uphold the dignity of the judiciary. The bench stated,
“We reiterate, whatever we said in our order was to ensure that the dignity and the authority of the judiciary as a whole is maintained high in the minds of the people of this country. It is not just a matter of error or mistake by the judge concerned in appreciating the legal points or facts. We were concerned about the appropriate direction to be issued in the interest of justice and to protect the honour and dignity of the institution.”
The Supreme Court also revealed that this deletion came after a request from High Court Chief Justice E.R. Gavai to reconsider the matter.
Acknowledging the administrative powers of the High Court Chief Justice, the Supreme Court added that it was for him to decide how to handle the case. The bench said it respected the fact that the Chief Justice is the “master of the roster” and left the matter to his discretion.
The original August 4 order by the same bench had gone further than just making critical remarks—it had removed criminal matters from Justice Kumar’s list of cases, stating this would remain so until he retired.
This came after the bench noted that he had
“erroneously upheld summons of substantive criminal nature in a civil dispute.”
Following this, on August 7, a group of Allahabad High Court judges wrote to Chief Justice Arun Bhansali, urging him to convene a Full Court meeting to discuss the matter.
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