The Supreme Court has sought a report from the Karnataka High Court regarding the controversial comments made by Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda during a recent hearing. While hearing a landlord-tenant dispute, Justice Srishananda referred to a Muslim-majority area in Bengaluru as “Pakistan” and made a misogynistic remark towards a woman lawyer.
A five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and including Justices S Khanna, BR Gavai, S Kant, and H Roy, said there was a need for clear guidelines for constitutional court judges regarding their remarks and to maintain judicial decorum.
“Why we have assembled here is because of videos of Karnataka HC judge making some gratuitous remark,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said.
“Attention has been drawn to media reports about the comments made by Justice… of Karnataka High Court during the proceedings. We request the Karnataka High Court to submit a report after consulting the Chief Justice of the high court,” Chief Justice Chandrachud stated, adding that they may establish some basic guidelines.
Several social media users criticised the High Court judge for his remarks which were livestreamed. “In this age of social media, we are closely watched, and we have to act accordingly,” CJI said and ordered the report to be submitted within two days. The hearing has been scheduled for September 26.
Videos of Justice Srishananda’s remarks have gone viral on social media. In one instance, he called a Muslim-dominated locality “Pakistan”. During the hearing, while discussing traffic issues near the Mysore Road flyover, Justice Srishananda had said, “Go to the Mysore Road flyover, every auto rickshaw has 10 people. It is not applicable because the Mysore flyover head left to the market from Gori Palya is in Pakistan, not in India. This is the reality. No matter how strict a police officer you put there, they will be beaten up there.”
In another incident, he made inappropriate comments to a woman lawyer. Justice Srishanananda can be heard telling the woman lawyer that she seemed to know a lot about the “opposition party”, so much so that she might be able to reveal the colour of their undergarments.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising took to X to urge the Chief Justice “to take suo moto action against this judge and send him for gender sensitisation training”.
