Supreme Court acts suo motu in case of remarks by Karnataka HC judge; seeks report from Registrar General

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of videos of a Karnataka High Court judge making some "gratuitous" remarks during the hearing of cases and sought a report from the High Court's Registrar General.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said the court may lay down guidelines in this regard.

In this age of social media, proceedings are closely watched and thus we have to act accordingly, the bench said.

The bench pointed out its attention has been drawn to some comment made Karnataka HC judge Justice V Srishananda during conduct of judicial proceedings.

"The reason we have assembled is because of the gratuitous comments made by a judge of the Karnataka high court, the videos of which are now getting circulated,” the bench said.

The bench asked Attorney General R Venkatramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the court, saying it may consider establishing basic guidelines to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy, asked the Registrar General of the HC to submit a report to this court after seeking administrative directions from the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.

"The attention of the Court has been drawn to media reports pertaining to certain comments which have been made by a judge of the high court of Karnataka, justice V Srishananda, during the conduct of judicial proceedings. We have requested the Attorney General for India and the Solicitor General to assist this court,” the bench said.

“At this stage, we request the registrar general of the high court of Karnataka to submit a report to this Court after seeking administrative directions of the chief justice of the high court of Karnataka, in regard to the subject matter which has been referred to above. This exercise may be carried out in the next two days and a report be submitted to the secretary general of this Court, in the meantime," the bench added.

The court fixed the matter for consideration on September 25.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising had on September 19, 2024 highlighted the clip of the proceedings conducted by the judge concerned in a post on X and called upon the Chief Justice of India to take suo moto action against the judge and send him for gender sensitisation training.

Justice Srishananda had purportedly referred to a Muslim-dominated locality in Bengaluru as "Pakistan". The judge was also seen to have made gender insensitive comments against a woman lawyer in a separate matter. Several handles on X objected to his remarks in their posts.