A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday sought a report from the registrar-general of Karnataka High Court within two days over the purported remarks of a judge terming a particular colony in Bengaluru as “Pakistan”.

Justice V. Srishananda had also purportedly made misogynist remarks against a female advocate in connection with the male advocate representing the other side.

The bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy took suo motu cognizance of the matter on the basis of media reports. They sought the assistance of attorney-general R. Venkataramani and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta.

CJI Chandrachud told the AG and the SG that the bench’s attention had been “drawn to certain video clips about certain gratuitous remarks” by Justice Srishananda.

Besides the video clips and news reports going viral, senior advocate Indira Jaising had posted the purported video of the judge’s remarks on X and urged the CJI to take immediate action.

CJI Chandrachud told Venkataramani and the others that the bench intends to lay down guidelines on the extent of observations that can be made by judges to uphold the majesty of the courts.

Under the Constitution, a judge of the Supreme Court or a high court can only be impeached by Parliament for misconduct, corruption and other allegations. However, a high court chief justice has the power to withdraw judicial work from a judge
under certain situations.

“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 and the solicitor-general to assist this court,” the Supreme Court 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. List the proceedings on 25 September 2024 at 10.30am,” the bench said in a written order.

Justice Srishananda had made the controversial remarks while hearing two cases.

In one, while expressing dismay over the burgeoning traffic and other harrowing experiences of commuters in Bengaluru, the judge had referred to a particular colony in the city as “Pakistan”, which many believed was a reference to the dominant population of that locality.

In another case relating to income tax assessment, the judge had tried to cut short a female lawyer who interjected to say that her rival counsel’s client was an IT assessee. This prompted the judge to orally remark that the lady lawyer perhaps knew more about the rival side’s counsel and proceeded to make an intemperate remark.