‘A judge should live like a monk and work like a horse’, says Supreme Court

Supreme Court On Judges: The Supreme Court on Thursday (December 12, 2024) said that there is no room for pretentiousness among judges. The court advised people joining judicial service to avoid using social media.

While hearing the suo motu case against the decision of Madhya Pradesh High Court to dismiss two women judicial officers, Justice B.V. The bench headed by Nagarathna found a Facebook post of one of the two officers, in which he had shared his experiences of the courts on Facebook.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The bench said, “A judge has to live like a monk and work like a horse. A judicial officer has to make a lot of sacrifices. There is no room for ostentation for a judge.” The bench further said, “Judges should not comment on the judgments because platforms like Facebook are open forums. Tomorrow it can be said that on social media they have given their view in one way or the other on a case.”

What is the matter?

Justice N Kotishwar Singh was also included in the bench. The case pertains to the dismissal of two civil judges Aditi Kumar Sharma and Sarita Chaudhary, who were inducted into the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

A total of six women judicial officers were dismissed in 2023. When the Supreme Court asked the High Court to reconsider its decision, the Madhya Pradesh High Court withdrew its decision in respect of four officers, but refused to withdraw the dismissal order against these two officers and Adverse comments were recorded against him, which were placed in a sealed cover before the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate and former High Court judge R. Basant supported this view and said that a judge should be prepared to stay away from social media and those who are not prepared to do so should not join the judicial service.

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