Trend to level allegations against judges when litigants don't like order: Supreme Court

A recent trend has developed among litigants to level allegations against judges when unfavourable orders are passed, the Supreme Court recently observed [Anupam Ghosh and anr vs Faiz Mohammed and ors]..A Bench of Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari deprecated such practice, noting that it demoralises judicial officers when allegations are levelled that their orders were influenced by extraneous considerations."Nowadays, there is a tendency to make such allegations against the judicial Officers whenever the orders are passed against a litigant and the orders are not liked by the concerned litigant. We deprecate such a practice. If such a practice is continued, it will ultimately demoralize the judicial officer. In fact, such an allegation can be said to be obstructing the administration of justice," the Court said..The top court was hearing a transfer petition in which proceedings towards an execution petition were sought to be transferred from the District and Session Judge at Dhaulpur in Rajasthan to Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Counsel for the petitioners alleged that that they were not getting a fair trial, as the respondents are 'local bigwigs' influencing the proceedings. The Bench at the outset said that it was not convinced by the argument. "We deprecate such a stand and the ground on which the proceedings are sought to be transferred. Merely because some Orders are passed on judicial side (in the present case in the execution proceedings) which may be against the petitioners, it cannot be said that the Court, which passed the order was influenced. If the petitioners are aggrieved by any judicial order, the proper remedy would be to challenge the same before higher forum," the Court said.On the other apprehension of the petitioners that there is a threat to their life in view of an allegedly false criminal complaint lodged against them, the Court noted," ... if the petitioners are aggrieved by the FIR, the remedy would have been to approach the quashing of the same." A closure report filed in connection with the said complaint is also not a grounds to transfer the proceedings, the Bench observed while dismissing the plea. .Senior Advocates Sidharth Luthra and Dushyant Dave appeared for the petitioners and respondents respectively. Recently, the Allahabad High Court had also observed that there is a current trend on the part of general public to overawe judges by complaining and maligning them by levelling baseless allegations.[Read Order]