Patna
Union Law and Justice Minister Ravishankar Prasad on Saturday warned criticism of judges on social media will not be tolerated. Speaking at a function at Patna High Court to mark the inauguration of Shatabadi Bhawan, Prasad said although he supported freedom of media, the government will not allow misuse and abuse of social media.
He said adverse comments were being made against the judges to condemn them for not giving favourable orders. This is a new disturbing trend as judges are being trolled. "Any kind of trolling and public criticism of judges is unfair. This needs to be prevented," he said.
avishankar recalled the two day-old government circular against social media to regulate and discipline them. "I am a product of the JP movement which advocated freedom of speech and media; still I feel the media should not misuse its freedom to abuse judges," he reiterated.
Ravishankar who holds IT and communications portfolios also praised the judges from Supreme Court to lower courts for their outstanding performance during the pandemic period and claimed 76.38 lakh cases were heard through video conferencing in the last one year when physical hearing was suspended. "Even the SC heard 2.23 lakh cases during the Corona period," he said.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, who inaugurated the new building having about 50 courtrooms spread on five floors, said during the Pandemic period a new lesson was learnt that justice delivery system was technology dependent as digital filing of cases and distance hearing was done. We need more equipment to make the distance justice delivery system successful. During the Corona period, both litigants and lawyers suffered and the Supreme Court had to open mental health clinics for counselling.
He praised the chief justice of Patna High Court Justice Sanjay Karol for being environment friendly and not allowing destruction of Peepal trees in the HC campus for construction of the new building. He made the engineers change the design and reshape the building complex to save Peepal trees, CJI Bobde said.
He recommended pre-litigation mediations to check the rising number of both civil and criminal cases in the courts and recommended laws should be changed to make the mediations having force of law.
CM Nitish Kumar promised all support to the judiciary for speedy trial of cases and fair justice to the common man. He said it was the responsibility of both the judiciary and the executive to ensure the rule of law. The new building, constructed at Rs204 crore, will replace the old building inaugurated by the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge in 1916.
