Supreme Court Justice PS Narasimha said Judges must try to resist the temptation to speak beyond what they write in their judgments, particularly in the age of social media where every word is reported. He added that judges must resist the temptation of speaking more, particularly after retirement. “We seem to have moved away (from restraint in speech) with social media and requirement to speak so much. Every word gets reported in the news, and sitting judges might get attracted. And worse is post-retirement, judges think that ‘time has come when I have to talk now’, as if it is a full-time talk.
I think that’s not the way the system should work,” he noted. Justice Narasimha was speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court Bar Association for Justice Chandurkar on Saturday. Justice Narasimha said how the legal profession constantly grapples with two values — speech and truth. For lawyers, speech is essential in advocacy, while for judges, it finds expression in written judgments. The challenge lies in ensuring that both advocacy and judging remain instruments for uncovering truth, he said.