Judges Are Least Concerned If They Are Liked; We Don't Work For Certificates Of Others, But As Per Our Conscience : Justice MR Shah

Supreme Court judge Justice MR Shah on Tuesday remarked that judges are not concerned if they are liked and they work as per their conscience and not for "certificates" from others.

The judge made the comment during a brief discussion on the issue of pendency of cases, during the hearing of a case.

While saying that one of the reasons for pendency is the frequent adjournment requests made by the lawyers, Justice Shah said that judges will be disliked if they don't grant time to lawyers.

"If we don't grant time we aren't liked, but we are least concerned whether we are liked, we don't want to work according to certificate of others, as per our conscience we should work", Justice Shah said.

Justice Shah further said that multiple adjournment letters are circulated on a daily basis, especially citing 'personal difficulty'.

"Pendency... one of the reasons is adjournment letters. Every day 5-6 adjournment letters, personal difficulty! We can't ask(reason) also, as it's a personal difficulty" Justice Shah said.

The remarks were made by Justice Shah during the hearing of matter pertaining to ban of firecrackers, when Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave pointed out that the pandemic has led to an increase in the backlog of cases.

During the hearing, Justice Shah said that the court is virtually over- burdened, with 4-5 counsels seeking urgent listing of their matters daily.

"Last 2 years have been seriously challenging, lot of backlog is there...there are 70,000 pending cases" Mr Dave said.

Justice Shah further said that the court encourages the young members of the Bar to grab the opportunity and argue the matter.

"It is our secret, if junior comes, 5% weightage. Otherwise they won't get opportunity" Justice Shah said.

"We should surrender our gowns", Mr Dave said in a lighter vein.

"Not that, but you can give opportunity to your juniors also." Justice Shah replied.

Case Title: Arjun Gopal v Union of India 

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