The Supreme Court on Friday took cognisance of video clips that have emerged on social media of a Karnataka High Court judge making controversial comments during two separate hearings, Live Law reported.
At one of the hearings, the High Court judge, Justice V Srishananda, was heard referring to the Muslim-dominated locality of Gori Palya in Bengaluru as “Pakistan”. In another video, he was heard saying to a woman lawyer that she seemed to know so much about the opposite party in a litigation that she could even reveal the colour of their undergarments.
On Friday, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud sought a report from the High Court registrar general on the comments. The Supreme Court said it may lay down basic guidelines about judges making observations in court.
Srishananda made the statement on Gori Palya on August 28 while speaking about the need to inculcate traffic discipline in the country. He claimed that police personnel in the locality could not enforce traffic rules as they faced the threat of violence.
“Go to that Mysuru Road flyover,” Srishananda can be heard saying in a video of the hearing. “Every auto rickshaw has got 10 people. It is not applicable because the Mysore flyover right up to the flower market from Gori Palya is in Pakistan, not in India.”
He added: “This is the reality. No matter how strict police officer you put there, they will be beaten up there.”
In another video, Srishananda was heard reprimanding a woman advocate for answering a question put to the counsel for the opposite party, Bar and Bench reported.
He subsequently made the comment about the lawyer knowing about the colour of the opposite party’s undergarments.
On Thursday, former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising urged Chandrachud to act against Srishananda for his comments directed at the women advocate. “Send him for gender sensitisation training,” Jaising said in a post on X.
Lawyer Sanjoy Ghose said it was astonishing that a judge could refer to Indian citizens as Pakistanis merely on account of their faith.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Priti Gandhi praised the judge for “openly calling out the minority appeasement being done” in the state by the ruling Congress government.
On X, Gandhi, who is in charge of social media for the BJP Mahila Morcha, claimed that the police was “scared” to “catch anyone between Bengaluru City market & Gori Palya, which is a minority dominated area”.
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