Judges shouldn’t judge judgments: CJI

hiruvananthapuram, Wednesday, January 14, 2009: Talking to a private channel in New Delhi Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said that, after pronouncing judgment in court the judges should refrain themselves from making judgments on it. Chief Justice added that various judges having different opinions on same topic under the same court is not a serious matter and that need not necessarily lead to losing credibility of law. But judges should maintain a certain jurisdiction before speaking on a particular topic. The statements from Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan comes at a time when judgments pronounced by Justice K Hema and Justice R Basant in connection with Sister abhaya case turned into a war of words between various benches of Kerala High Court. Yersterday, Justice K Hema of the Kerala High Court today had observed that no judge in the High Court could clarify her observations in the order granting bail to the three accused in the Sister Abhaya murder case. She also observed that every Bench in the HC could invoke jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution and this was applicable to the bail court also. If the CBI had any complaints about her order it could have appealed in the Supreme Court and only the apex court could clarify her order. Justice Hema said she delivered the judgment on the basis of records and case diary and she was not worried about media reports. She made the obsevations while considering another anticipatory bail petition, which was unconnected with the Sister Abhaya case. The CBI had also filed a statement telling that the present investigation team would continue to probe the case. In an another report filed by the CBI states that the accused and their counsels did not meet in the presence of CBI officers. Justice Hema had rapped the CBI while granting conditional bail to the three accused, Father Thomas Kottur, Father Jose Poothrukkayil and Sister Sephi, following which the investigating agency filed a petition seeking to clarify whether it had to continue with the investigation or not. While hearing the CBI petition, Justice R Basant had observed that the bail Bench cannot and did not take over the burden of monitoring the investigation. The question before the bail Bench was whether the bail should be granted to the three accused or not.

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