Today, On 11th August, The Supreme Court criticised the growing “trend among lawyers to critique judges of HC and trial courts,” noting that in political cases, there is often an assumption that justice cannot be delivered in the High Court.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court criticized the tendency to assume that justice would not be served when cases involving political figures are heard by a High Court.
The Court was addressing a case in which it had recently issued a notice to litigant Peddi Raju and his attorneys, asking them to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for allegedly making derogatory claims against Telangana High Court judge, Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya.
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These allegations were made in a petition seeking to transfer a case in which Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy received relief, to a court other than the Telangana High Court.
The High Court had dismissed specific criminal charges filed against him under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act).
Today, the Bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, Justice Vinod Chandran, and Justice Atul S Chandurkar, instructed Raju and his lawyers to apologize to Justice Bhattacharya, noting that it would be up to her to decide whether to accept the apology.
The Court remarked,
“Recently a three-judges bench of this court to which two of us were party, deciding a reference with regard to difference of opinion regarding two learned judges of this court, it was held that wisdom lies in forgiving rather than punishing in such cases and the apology of lawyer was accepted.”
In today’s ruling, the Supreme Court emphasized that such allegations in a petition constitute contempt of court.
It added,
“We have noticed that nowadays it has become a trend among lawyers to critique judges of HC and trial courts. It has become a trend that when matter involves a political figure, there is an assumption that there cannot be justice in the High Court,”
The Court further observed that High Court judges, as constitutional authorities, enjoy the same immunity as Supreme Court judges.
The CJI-led bench emphasized,
“Under constitutional scheme, they have same respect as the Supreme Court; the Supreme Court does not have any administrative control over High Court or the judges of High Court. When such allegations are made against HC judges, it is the duty of this court to protect them,”
Case Title: IN RE: N. Peddi Raju and Others Versus, SMC(C) No. 3/2025
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