SC judge Justice Oka bats for constructive criticism of court rulings

Gandhinagar: Every citizen has the right to criticise court judgments but it should be constructive, studied, and done with a great sense of responsibility, Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay S Oka has said.

Delivering a lecture at Gujarat National Law University on Sunday, he also called for restraint while dealing with scandalous material about the judiciary on social media, and said the “so-called” experts should not to rush to debate hours after a ruling is given.

He said while judges and the members of the bar must ensure that the judiciary remains fiercely independent, every educated and right-thinking person should also stand by the judiciary when attempts are made to encroach upon its independence.

“I always believe, as a judge, that we are answerable to the common man. Every time, I have addressed students or lawyers, I have said that every citizen of India has the right to criticise the judgments delivered by the courts. But that criticism has to be constructive,” he said.

One cannot get up and say a court judgment is wrong and they do not agree with it, said Justice Oka in his lecture on ‘Contemporary Challenges to the Independence of Judiciary’.

“If you want to criticise a judgment, you must criticise it by saying these are the grounds on which the judge has gone wrong, or this is the finding recorded by the judge which is contrary to the well-established law. It has to be a studied criticism,” he said.

Justice Oka said the “so-called” experts should not get ready to debate whether a Supreme Court judgment is right or wrong hours after it is pronounced.

“If you want to criticise the judgement, you have the right to do so, but please examine the judgment carefully and then say, why the judgment has gone wrong,” he said, underscoring that such criticism was akin to criticising the judiciary as judges follow self-restraint.

“We are not the political class that can go back to the media and say that the criticism is not correct. We are not supposed to do that. We are holding a constitutional post …While upholding the right of the common man to criticise the judgment, I always tell, especially to law students, that it has to be done with a great deal of responsibility,” he said.