Judges Should Be Like Hermits, Avoid Social Media, Says Supreme Court

New Delhi: Stating that there was no place for flamboyance, the Supreme Court recently emphasized the need for judges to lead disciplined lives and urged them to avoid social media. The top court also urged the judges to refrain from expressing personal opinions on judicial matters. A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh made such remarks while hearing a case involving the termination of two women judicial officers by the Madhya Pradesh High Court over alleged unsatisfactory performance during their probation periods.

The bench said judges should live ‘like hermits’ and work ‘like horses’. “Judicial officers should not go to Facebook. They should not comment on judgements because tomorrow, if the judgement is cited, the judge has already expressed one way or the other. It is an open platform,” the bench stated, as quoted by PTI.

The court made the remark after learning that one of the terminated judges had made a post on Facebook.

Senior advocate R Basant, representing one of the terminated judges, also stated that no judicial officer or judge should post anything related to their work on social media.

The observations were part of a discussion on the case of six women civil judges terminated by the Madhya Pradesh High Court earlier this year.

Among the terminated judges, four were reinstated after reconsideration. But Aditi Kumar Sharma and Sarita Chaudhary, appointed in 2017 and 2018, were dismissed in June 2023. They were removed for ‘failing to meet performance standards during their probation period.’