Justice Katju to appear in Supreme Court

By Vijay Kumar

PERHAPS for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court of India, a former Supreme Court Judge will appear before the Court.

Justice Markandey Katju says,

In the Soumya case when I heard for the first time that the Supreme Court had issued notice to me and asked me to appear before them and explain my views, I was upset because I thought the Court was trying to humiliate me since I had criticized their judgement, and such an order was unprecedented. So I had initially thought of not appearing before the Court on 11th November (the date fixed).

But when I received the notice of the Court and read it, I found that the Court used very respectful language to me and had 'requested' me, not 'ordered' me, to appear, since they seemed to be sincere about their desire to reconsider their judgment, and did not have a closed mind.

Lord Denning, the celebrated British judge once said "The Judge has not been born who has not made a mistake", and in Soumya's case I genuinely believe that the Supreme Court made some serious mistakes in its judgment by reversing the death penalty awarded by the High Court.

Possibly these mistakes were made because the Court is so overburdened with work that it cannot give as much time to cases as they deserve which they would have otherwise done, had it not been for this heavy load of cases to decide.

We are all humans, and all of us make mistakes, but a gentleman is one who realizes his mistake, acknowledges it, and seeks to make amends. This should apply to judges too.