Only verdict speaks

The Tribune, 27 April 2016

http://epaper.tribuneindia.com/c/9926175

Only verdict speaks

It refers to the article "Judiciary guilty of ducking political cases" (April 25). Mr Justice Kurian Joseph of the SC, at the Bar Council of India meet in Chennai on July 26, 2015, said, "A judge is expected to speak only through his judgment. While performing work as a judge, if he makes a comment in the bench, never ever build upon that. Never ever quote or criticize or work upon oral comments of judges in benches. Just ignore comments. By following such things, the media will do a great service to the nation and democracy". Recently, the Supreme Court had also echoed the same sentiment guarding against reporting of its oral observations. 

RAJENDER GOYAL, Bahadurgarh

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In the article “Judiciary guilty of ducking political cases” (25 April), Mr Jagdeep S. Chhokar quoted a media reportage giving account of a court proceeding and pleadings/narrations of Parties/their Advocates and remarks/observations of presiding judges as witnessed by the reporter in the open Court. However, the actual court order is different from what is purportedly set out in the reportage leading the learned author to hold that “the order as pronounced in the court and recorded seems to be different”. Pertinent here is to recall the appeal made by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kurian Joseph of Supreme Court of India while addressing Bar Council of India Meet at Chennai on 26.07.2015 that “a judge is expected to speak only through his judgment. While performing work as a judge, if he makes a comment in the bench, never ever build upon that. Never ever quote or criticize or work upon oral comments of judges in benches. Just ignore comments. By following such things, the media will do a great service to the nation and democracy”. Recently the Supreme Court had also echoed the same sentiment guarding against reporting of its oral observations.