New Delhi: Justice JB Pardiwala has been in the news of late for having come down heavily on former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and dismissing her petition seeking to club all FIRs registered against her for her controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
The Supreme Court judge has been at the receiving end for his observation that Nupur’s ‘loose tongue has set the entire country on fire’, and faced severe backlash from certain quarters which supported Nupur.
There have been several uncharitable comments against the judges.
A letter petition has even been filed before Chief Justice of India seeking to direct the vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Pardiwala to withdraw oral remarks made against Nupur.
On Sunday, Justice Pardiwala hit out at the detractors, saying that social and digital media need to be mandatorily regulated in India to preserve the rule of law under the Constitution. Crossing the ‘Lakshman rekha’ (boundary) on digital and social media platforms for ‘personalised, agenda-driven attacks’ on the judges was ‘dangerous’, he said.
“In India, which cannot be classified as mature and an informed democracy, social and digital media is employed frequently to politicise purely legal and constitutional issues… Crossing that ‘Lakshman rekha’ many times, this is especially worrisome,” Justice Pardiwala said while speaking at the Justice HR Khanna Memorial National Symposium organized by National Law University, Odisha at Cuttack and Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow.
“Digital and social media needs to be mandatorily regulated in the country to preserve the rule of law under our Constitution,” opined Justice Pardiwala, who was recently elevated to the top court.
“Attacks attempted at our judges for the judgements will lead to a dangerous scenario where the judges will have to pay greater attention as to what the media thinks rather than what the law actually mandates. This puts the rule of law on the burner ignoring the sanctity of the respect for the courts,” the judge said.
He further observed that trials by digital media are an undue interference in the justice dispensation system.
“Social and digital media is nowadays primarily resorted to expressing personalised opinions more against the judges per se rather than a constructive critical appraisal of their judgements. This is what is harming the judicial institutions and lowering this dignity,” he remarked.
