The Supreme Court on Thursday asked judges to live a saintly life. The Supreme Court said that judges should live a saintly life and work with full diligence and they should also avoid using social media. The court said that judges should not express any opinion about the decisions. This oral comment was made by a bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh. The bench was hearing a case related to the dismissal of two women judicial officers by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
‘Judges should avoid using Facebook’
The Supreme Court remarked that there is no place for show-off in the judiciary. The bench said, “Judicial officers should avoid using Facebook. They should not comment on the decisions, because tomorrow if the decision is cited, the judge would have already said his point in some form or the other.” The bench said, “This is an open forum. You have to live like a saint, work with full diligence. Judicial officers have to make a lot of sacrifices. They should not use Facebook at all.”
‘Don’t post work-related posts on Facebook’
Senior advocate R. Basant, appearing for one of the sacked women judges, reiterated the bench’s views and said no judicial officer or judge should post anything related to judicial work on Facebook. The observation came after senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, an amicus curiae, submitted before the bench about various complaints against the sacked woman judge. Agarwal told the bench that the woman judge had also put up a post on Facebook.
The apex court had taken cognizance
On November 11, 2023, the apex court had taken suo motu cognizance of the dismissal of six women civil judges by the state government due to alleged unsatisfactory performance. However, the full court of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on August 1 reconsidered its earlier proposals and decided to reinstate four officers Jyoti Varkade, Ms Sonakshi Joshi, Ms Priya Sharma and Rachna Atulkar Joshi with certain conditions, while the other two Aditi Kumar Sharma and Sarita Chaudhary were excluded from the process. The apex court was considering the cases of judges who had joined the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service in 2018 and 2017, respectively.