Judgments must not be ‘tossed out’ after their authors retire: Justice Nagarathna

Supreme Court judge, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, has said judgments are not written in sand, but in ink, and should not be “tossed out” by subsequent Benches once the judges who authored them have retired.

The words of the lone woman judge in the Supreme Court follow recent overruling of judgments by subsequent Benches. One of the cases in point is the recent overturning of the Vanashakti judgment, which had stopped the practice of ex post facto environmental clearances.

Justice Nagarathna, speaking at an event, said the legal fraternity and governance framework have to respect judgments for what they are, and only challenge them through the established process of law. Judgments cannot be discarded merely because “faces have changed”.

The views of Justice Nagarathna coincided with the observations made by a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta about the trend of overruling judgments following the retirement of their authors from the Supreme Court.

“In the recent past, we have rather painfully observed a growing trend in this court [of which we too are an indispensable part] of verdicts pronounced by judges, whether still in office or not and irrespective of the time lapse since pronounced, being overturned by succeeding Benches or specially constituted Benches at the behest of some party aggrieved by the verdicts prior in point of time,” Justice Datta’s Bench had observed in a judgment.

Justice Nagarathna cautioned that judicial independence warranted judgments to remain anchored in time, and challenged in accordance with the traditions embedded in law.

Personal conduct

Justice Nagarathna also added that personal conduct of judges also contributed to the protection of judicial independence. Political insularity was critical to judicial independence.

“Judicial independence is ultimately conviction, courage and independence of individual judges who decide matters before a court of law,” she said

“The conduct of a judge has to be more than merely lawful. Independence of judicial thought and conduct must not only exist but must also be perceived by the public to be beyond suspicion,” Justice Nagarathna emphasised.

She was speaking at the international convention on the “Independence of the Judiciary” at the O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana’s Sonipat on Saturday.