Government not complying with court orders affects independence of judiciary; ED Director's tenure extension example: Justice S Muralidhar

Legitimacy of the judiciary gets seriously challenged when court orders are not implemented or are overlooked by the government, former Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar said on Thursday..Speaking at an event organized by the Academy for Advanced Legal Studies and Training at the Kerala High Court, Justice Muralidhar said obedience of court orders is the major premise for independence of judiciary.Justice Muralidhar cited the recent example of extension given to Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Sanjay Kumar Mishra - he has demitted the post since - and said the Central government told the Supreme Court that notwithstanding the top court's judgment, the government needed more time (to find a new Deirector)..He also spoke about the Central government’s decision to file review against the apex court’s recent decision ruling that the ED must provide grounds of arrest to the accused in the money laundering cases.“There is this constant challenge of orders and you see this quick overturning of judgments by referring to larger benches. This also seriously questions the independence and free and impartial functioning of the judiciary,” said Justice Muralidhar..Talking about contempt jurisdiction of the court, Justice Muralidhar said the benches dealing exclusively with contempt matters “are the most frustrated ones”.“The contempt jurisdiction of each court tells us the extent to which by court orders are respected by individuals and most importantly by the State,” he added..Justice Muralidhar also said that another way of hampering the independence of judiciary is to put barriers to it being fully staffed. There have been instances where appointments have not gone through for several months, he added."It is one thing for the government to agree to increase the sanctioned strength. It is another to not create the right atmosphere to appoint more people to fill up those vacancies. There is a role for govt, judiciary and a big role for the bar," the former judge said.