Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra on Wednesday criticised some advocates for targeting judges of the top court and accused them of killing the institution, the Hindustan Times reported. Justice Mishra said “the lawyers will survive only if this institution survives”.

“No one is spared, you are attacking all, targeting all,” Mishra told senior advocates during a hearing. “With one arrow, you want to kill everyone. When a judgement is passed, you go to this TV, that TV and discuss court proceedings. This is happening every day. Who is spared in this court? Every judge is targeted. We are abused like anything.”

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He added: “You are killing this institution every day. Lawyers will survive only if this institution survives.”

Mishra made the remarks as senior lawyers persisted with their arguments during the hearing of the Medical Council of India’s petition against a Kerala government ordinance that allowed two medical colleges to admit students contrary to a Supreme Court order. The court had already stayed the ordinance.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who was present in the court on behalf of Medical Council of India, said he supported Mishra’s view. “An institution cannot be maligned the way it is happening,” he told the Hindustan Times. “It’s not in the interest of the country. Even if someone has to be critical, he or she must weigh the consequences before speaking anything.”

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Mishra’s name had crept up in the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court in January, when four of the court’s five senior-most judges had gone public with their grievances against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. They had claimed that sensitive matters were being allocated to junior judges.

One of the judges had said he had decided to speak out after a plea seeking an independent inquiry into judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya’s death was allotted to a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. The petition was later withdrawn from Mishra’s bench and transferred to a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Misra.