Fear of media is an important factor in today's times which affects performance of judges, Senior Advocate and former Kerala High Court Justice R Basant recently said.

Referring to the oath taken by the judges to perform duties without fear or favor, Justice Basant said,

“The fear of the media is a very important dimension affecting your performance as a judge”.

Media hype is an occupational hazard for every judge, he added.

Justice Basant, who currently practices before the Supreme Court, said that television channels often start discussions on a legal subject even before the judgment in the matter is pronounced.

“Today a judgment is rendered now, and by the time you are out of court, they have started discussions on that. This is an occupational hazard,” he said.

Justice Basant was speaking at a dialogue titled "Conversations on Justice" organized at the India India Habitat Centre (IHC) in New Delhi in honour of Justice S Ravindra Bhat by his family, friends including past and present law clerks.

The dialogue also involved Justices UU lalit, Mukta Gupta, S Muralidhar, and Badar Ahmed and was moderated by Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran and advocate Malvika Prasad.

Justice Basant said there is a need for “judges of sterner stuff” who can withstand the pressure built by the media including social media. 

“The judges are worried, I can see that. Curse the day when the judge would decide the matter, anticipating the headlines of tomorrow’s dailies, but it appears to be happening,” the former judge said.

He recalled that when he joined the judiciary early in 1988, he could not have imagined the that type of allegations which are being raised now even against the Chief Justices of India could not have been raised then against an “an ordinary junior division judge of the locality.”

However, he conceded that the judiciary also was considerably responsible for this trend, adding that the purity and righteousness surrounding judges were slowly waning.

“The media is also responsible to a great extent, not forgetting our contribution to that also. One is we cannot stop the media. Judges will have to be of sterner stuff to be able to withstand the media pressure and ignore them because our institution is not the majoritarian institution at all.”

Stressing on the ability to ignore what is said about judges and their judgments, Justice Basant said that accountability doesn’t mean fear of media. 

Read what former CJI UU Lalit said here.

Read what Justice S Muralidhar said here.

Read what Justice BD Ahmed said here.

[Watch full event below]