Can't the Judges be a little less rude?
THE observations of the Madras High Court could not have come a day earlier.
Everybody in the Court bows to the bench and are all always submissive and extremely polite and almost every sentence is followed and preceded by "my Lords". But many of their lordships on the Bench are often rude and arrogant and lose their temper (with no attempt to regain it). It does not mean that all judges are rude and arrogant. Many of them are extremely courteous, smiling and encourage the junior lawyers. Some of the Supreme Court judges are so kind and humble that one would be baffled at the arrogance of some junior judges in some lower courts. Of course, rude and arrogant behaviour is not limited to the lower courts, but can be seen even in the highest courts.
Courtesy and good behaviour can go together, as is being proved by many a judge.
And usually arrogance and outbursts are the highest when ignorance is also highest.
Recently Justice Ruma Pal remarked, arrogance as one of the seven sins - judges often "misconstrue"independence as judicial and administrative indiscipline. "Both of these in fact stem from judicial arrogance as to one's intellectual ability and status. Intellectual arrogance or what some may call intellectual dishonesty is manifest when judges decide without being bound by principles of stare decisis or precedent.
Chief justice Kapadia recently remarked, "Judicial accountability, is a facet of judicial independence. The legislature is accountable to the electorate. The executive is indirectly accountable to the people through the elected legislature. There is no reason why the judiciary should not be accountable to the community for its due performance of the functions vested in it. Power is given on trust and judicial power is no exception. Like other public institutions, the judiciary must be subject to a fair criticism."