“If you want to keep your day fresh, don’t read newspapers for at least the early two hours of the day,” the vacation bench of Justice G S Singhvi and Justice C K Prasad said.
The observation came when advocate Ratnakar Dash, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government in an ongoing case, drew the attention of the court to a news report that Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily sought to blame judicial activism for boosting Maoism.
Blaming “unrealistic judicial activism” as the main reason for increased Maoist activities, the minister said: “If the courts had exhibited restraint and gone according to ground realities in the forests, the situation would have been totally different today”.
“My concern is when judges admit PILs and deliver judgments, they should be realistic and go by the ground realities instead of believing on the arguments,” he said, according to the report.
Reacting to Moily’s statement, Justice Singhvi said: “We have stopped reading newspapers.” Dash said that he was piqued over the law minister’s statement and could not restrain himself in raising it before the court.
At this, Justice Singhvi said, “We are not affected by extraneous factors.” “Still better, we will not reply,” he added, before the court proceeded with the hearing of the case.