NEW DELHI: Observing that it has become a trend amongst lawyers to criticise judges for no reason, the Supreme Court on Monday directed a litigant and his lawyers to tender an unconditional apology to a Telangana high court judge against whom they levelled many “scurrilous allegations”.A bench comprising Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Atul S Chandurkar also observed that it has become a trend that whenever a political figure is involved, it is perceived that the petitioner has not got justice and seeks transfer.The bench made it clear that the judges of a high court enjoy the same immunity as Supreme Court judges. The bench noted that under the Constitution, high court or trial court judges are “in no way inferior” to judges in the Supreme Court.The top court made these directions after hearing a suo motu contempt plea when it observed allegations against high court judges are contemptuous and could not be condoned.The case arose from a transfer plea filed by n Peddi Raju, alleging bias and impropriety against the high court judge who quashed a criminal case under the SC/ST Act against CM Revanth Reddy.“We can’t permit judges to be put in a box and allow any litigant to make such allegations against a judge. Here, we were trying to protect lawyers,” the CJI remarked, while slamming the litigant for his alleged remarks.The court directed Peddi Raju to file his apology. “We will see if the apology is genuine. When we expressed displeasure at the language, liberty was sought to withdraw. We dismissed the request,” the court had said.
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