Supreme Court disapproves remarks made by Uttarakhand High Court judge against lawyers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has disapproved the "proclivity" of a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court in making "unjustified and illegal" remarks against advocates.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Sandeep Mehta noted that the judge had earlier also made some critical remarks in 2021 against a lawyer and the same were expunged by the top court.

"We disapprove the proclivity of the judge of the high court in making remarks against advocates for nothing so serious to take note of. In view of the fact that perception of the same judge has already been noticed in Neeraj Garg (2021 verdict), we do not need to re-examine the approach adopted by the judge even in this case," it said.

The top court set aside two orders of the high court dated December 1, 2020, and December 7, 2021, to the extent that they relate to the conduct of the advocate and expunge the remarks made against the appellant (a practising lawyer of the high court).

"We have gone through the orders dated December 1, 2020, and December 7, 2021, and have carefully examined the circumstances in which the observations were made by the judge. Having considered the observations made by the judge, we are of the opinion that neither the conduct, nor the circumstance warranted recording of the remarks. These remarks are unjustified and illegal," the bench said in its September 24 order.

The lawyer had approached the top court seeking expunging of remarks made in the orders and setting aside of the orders.