To err is human – taboo of SC
Supreme Court of India is a mammoth institution – 33 judges handling up to 700 legal matters a day, striking down colonial laws, reassuring privacy rights, making judgments on controversial issues when the government passes the buck, and at times playing the role of government. In short breathing life into democracy. 

But this institution has one glaring problem, it does not respond well to criticism. 

Even news outlets who make scathing attacks on the government(or I should say made) are conveniently mute on affairs of the court. When an affidavit was filed accusing Ex CJI Rangan Gogoi of sexual harassment, it was only the digital publications like wire and quint that ran it. It was delegated to middle pages and short snippets on most outlets.

Even when four senior judges of the supreme court held a press conference saying then CJI Deepak Misra was arbitrarily assigning sensitive cases to junior judges(stopping short of accusing him of fixing judgements) – there was noise which again got fizzed down. These were voices raised for probe into the suspicious death of Justice Loya hearing Sohrabuddin Sheikh case against Amit Shah among other things. The case was again given to a junior judge in SC and was dismissed – and as always our memory faded away. Even the recent handling of the transfer of Madras Chief Justice by the collegium had no transparency to it. 

Any institution is not above criticism. It’s ironic that when the court has enough time to debate playing national anthem in theatres, but it chooses to delay the matter of CAA. While the streets are filled with protestors, the court chose to wait after December vacation to yesterday and now another 4 weeks. I remember the directors for CBI, NIA and IB being called the next day for a “he said-she said” harassment case, and that case was closed even faster. The SC is not open to criticism of its judgements even by a ex-colleague – slapping Justice Katju with contempt notice.

Let’s not act like no judge has been corrupt or impeached – we have seen rogue judges right from Sikkim Chief Justice resigning over land grabbing to a Calcutta high court judge passing orders against his own arrest and shooting letters against CJI to the government. Or forget the insenstivity judges show towards petitioners – saying “If you are facing threats, there is no safer place than jail” to a journalist appealing for bail in Odisha. While the court is overtly progressive mindset on social causes it maintains a cautious tone on cases involving government policies. 

SC is not a holy grail. When political leaders chosen by the will of people can be criticized. No court is above it.

While it’s true that the Indian judiciary is overworked, understaffed; their salary hiked just 4 times since independence. It’s also true that is fair in most instances and nobler among the three pillars of government. Though opening the court to RTI is a welcome act, but much needs to be done and soon. The court needs more judges like Justice Khanna who delivered the dissenting opinion during emergency or Judge Radhabinod Pal who is still idolized in Japan for his opinion on Tokyo trails!