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Judge of the Supreme Court, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, cautioned on Sunday that "imputations" against the court and its "grading ... damages the very institution," and touched on what he called the "after me the deluge" thought process among some people who used to be part of the justice system.
Speaking of the need to maintain the confidence of citizens in institutions in order to avoid anarchy, he said that those "who were part of the institutions always owe it to the institution to see that it is not unfairly vilified and not vilified in a way that causes harm to the institution itself."
He spoke at a webinar organized by the Madras High Court Bar Association on 'Freedom of speech in Covid-19.'
The remarks came days after former judge of the Supreme Court Madan B Lokur said in an article that the supreme court deserved a 'F' rating for the way it treated the migrant crisis.
Without naming anybody, Justice Kaul said, "The judiciary has a particular role to play. It has no opportunity to respond. Criticism of a point of view, a judgment, there is no question, since I still believe that the decision is an opinion ... But when imputations and gradations begin to be made, I think that harms the very institution.
He continued, "The unfortunate part is some of us who were part of this institution... then there's the problem of 'after me the deluge,' which is that since we're gone, it's all wrong. I 'd say that this is a threat in itself.
"We are an changing society, things are going to change ... people who think about it in the past have also made a lot of errors and blunders. But staying in the news also has become a problem. So the tendency to be more critical and critical in a way that I'd say crosses those lines is also a problem ...
The judge said, "I hope this process can be rethought" and added, "While criticism is always knowledge that needs to come to us, I think there are certain limits that need to be maintained.Because then it is more of a disinformation that creates systemic doubts and I don't think it's good for any system because if you blame everybody, blame any system, so you don't have any system. You would have anarchy. If you have to prevent anarchy, it's important to believe in institutions.'
Justice Kaul said that freedom of speech is the central pillar of any democratic system and ruled that "we are becoming increasingly intolerant of views that do not suit our own and that is unfortunately prevalent in all sections" with the consequence that "what is perceived as the middle ground becomes the casualty”.
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