Prayagraj (UP), Aug 8 (PTI) Allahabad High Court Bar Association on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court’s move to delete the remarks made against high court’s Justice Prashant Kumar. Allahabad High Court Bar Association president Anil Tiwari said, “The Supreme Court realised that it had made a wrong order, withdrawing which is a very good step.” He continued, “The Supreme Court’s order of August 4 had very badly affected the independence of the High Court. Since the High Court is not subordinate to the Supreme Court, such comments should not be made. The Supreme Court realised the mistake and withdrew its comment.” The Supreme Court on Friday deleted its observations criticising Justice Kumar for allowing criminal proceedings in a civil dispute case, making it clear that its intention was not embarrass or cast aspersions on him.
On August 4, A bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan observed it was expected of the high court to know the well-settled position of law that in cases of civil disputes a complainant cannot be permitted to resort to criminal proceedings as the same would amount to abuse of process of the law.
The bench on Friday said the observations were meant to ensure the dignity of the judiciary was maintained.
“We reiterate, whatever we said in our order was to ensure that the dignity and the authority of the judiciary as a whole is maintained high in the minds of the people of this country. It is not just a matter of error or mistake by the judge concerned in appreciating the legal points or facts. We were concerned about the appropriate direction to be issued in the interest of justice and to protect the honour and dignity of the institution,” it said.
The bench explained it was deleting the observations after a request was made by Chief Justice B R Gavai to reconsider the matter.
Acknowledging the high court chief justice was the master of the roster, the top court left it to him to take call in the matter.
On August 4, the same top court bench stripped criminal matters of the roster of the Allahabad High Court judge till he demitted office after observing he “erroneously” upheld summons of criminal nature in a civil dispute.
On August 7, a group of judges of the high court wrote a letter to Chief Justice Arun Bhasali urging him to convene a full meeting. PTI RAJ AMK AMK
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