Bar Council of India lashes out at retired Supreme Court judge Chelameswar for his media statements
Justice Chelameswar, who demitted office on June 22, had disapproved of the Centre's decision not to elevate Justice K M Joseph to the Supreme Court, terming the action as "not sustainable".
Published: 25th June 2018 06:59 PM | Last Updated: 25th June 2018 09:01 PM | A+A A-
Retired Supreme Court judge Justice Jasti Chelameswar. | (File | AP)
NEW DELHI:Three days after the retirement of Justice J Chelameswar, the Bar Council of India on Monday objected to statements given by him and said it was not expected from a person who had held a high post and went against its dignity.
Issuing a statement, BCI through its President Manan Kumar Mishra said, "Self-restraint by the judges of the highest court seems to be a forgotten virtue. They have to prevent themselves from issuing statements without giving any thought to the consequences such statements could entail."
"The manner in which Justice Chelameswar went to the media and gave controversial and irrelevant statements immediately upon retirement, was not expected of a person holding such a high post and was in fact against the dignity of the post he had held," the statement reads.
"Such statements and comments are liable to be deprecated. Such statements cannot be tolerated, accepted or digested by the advocates including the rest of the countrymen," the statement said. It further states that the judge had used a controversial word bench fixing and pointed out that there were instances in which a handful of lawyers had filed matters and mentioned it before him and tried to get it listed.
