Supreme Court seeks report on “gratuitous remarks” made by Karnataka HC judge

Taking suo motu cognizance of rapidly spreading video clips on social media allegedly showing a judge of Karnataka High Court making “gratuitous remarks” during judicial proceedings, the Supreme Court on Sept 20 sought a report from the Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court about the matter in next two days, and assist the top court in laying down some guidelines on observations in the course of hearings.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud heading a five-judge bench said, “The reason why we have come in a combination of five judges is that our attention has been drawn to certain video clips about certain gratuitous remarks by a Karnataka High Court judge Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda during the judicial proceedings,”

“We will ask the Register General of the High Court to send us a report and perhaps with your assistance lay down some guidelines on observations in the course of hearings. Social media is now so prominent in observing proceedings in court, commenting on that” added CJI.

Justices - Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy were part of the bench.

The bench directed, “This exercise may be carried out in the next two days and the report may be submitted to the secretary general of this court in the meantime.”

We have requested the learned Attorney General of India and the Solicitor General to assist this court, it said.

“At this stage, we request the registrar general of the High Court of Karnataka to submit a report to this court after seeking administrative directions of the Chief Justice… regarding the subject matter which is being referred to,” the bench added.

Recently, some clips of the judge allegedly making unnecessary comments during a hearing went viral on social media.