On Thursday (August 4), Justice Krishna Bhat of the Karnataka High Court revealed how some judges feel entitled by virtue of being a part of the higher Judiciary, reported Live Law. He recounted, “I have known of an instance of High Court Judge addressing a letter to the Chief Justice of High Court calling for action against a District Judge all because he was not received at the airport personally by him and it is part of the record.”
Justice Krishna Bhat made the revelation in a speech during his farewell event, organised by the Karnataka High Court. He emphasised that such vanities by individual Judges make them unfit to hold any public position.
The Honourable Judge also rubbished claims that the Independence of the Judiciary was under threat in India. “There cannot be any threat to the independence of the judiciary. There is a vague and lingering view that there is less threat to the independence of judiciary written or oral from without than within; in the manner petitions, complaints, calculated branding is handled internally,” he pointed out.
Justice Krishna Bhat pointed out that the onus of keeping the Judiciary independent lay on individual Judges. “To my mind, threat to ‘Independence of Judiciary’ is a myth. Independence of Judiciary is realised by an individual Judge remaining independent,” he emphasised.
Justice Bhat worked as a lawyer at District courts in Mangalore before starting his practice at the High Court of Karnataka in July 1988. He was directly appointed as a District and Sessions Judge in 1998 and worked in district courts of Bidar, Raichur, Tumkur, Belgaum etc.
He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2020 and became a permanent Judge in September 2021.