Court is not a platform to impose your own ideas/philosophy: Justice Govind Mathur

The court is not a platform for judges to impose their own ideas and philosophy, said former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court Govind Mathur, in the context of a recent order passed by the High Court granting bail to a person accused of making obscene remarks against Lord Ram and Krishna..In its order pronounced on October 8, the High Court had observed that Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Ramayana, Gita and its authors Maharishi Valmiki and Maharishi Ved Vyas, are part of the heritage of the country and need to be given national honour through a law.Single judge Justice Shekhar Yadav went on to state,"The obscene remarks made by the accused / applicant about the great men of India, Lord Shri Ram and Shri Krishna, is an injury to the faith of the majority of the people of this country and it spoils the peace and harmony in the society and innocent people have to bear the brunt of it.".Reacting to these observations, Justice Mathur told Bar & Bench that a judge is not supposed to touch upon the merits of a case in bail orders..Court is a forum where you have to impart justice and not impose your ideology .Justice Mathur said that judges should avoid expressing their own notions, philosophy or faith while passing judicial orders."Court is not a platform to impose your own ideas/philosophy and judge is not suppose to touch merits of the case in bail orders."Every citizen has the right to choose and practise their faith, but the courts should refrain themselves from giving irrelevant statements in bail orders, he added. .Judge is not supposed to touch merits in bail proceedings.While commenting on the recent bail order, Justice Mathur said that a judge is not supposed to touch the merits of the case and the court should only be deciding whether bail can be granted or not."In this very case, even the merits have not been touched." With regard to delay in bail proceedings, he says:"The Court took more than one month to pass this order, which could have been decided on the day when it was reserved. Even a magistrate's court decides bail cases without such a delay.".He also termed the practice of reserving the bail order for months as "unfortunate.""This application was heard on August 26 and order was passed after a lapse of 42 days. I think this is not fair for a constitutional court. In normal course, you have to pass an order immediately after completion of arguments."To keep an order pending for a such a long period is unjust, Justice Mathur added. .Orders in Hindi must be translated and uploaded.Justice Shekhar Yadav passed the bail order in Hindi, and no translated copy was supplied. On this issue, Justice Mathur said that if some judge is passing orders in any language other than English, then a translated copy of the same must be provided."I have seen many judges in Rajasthan and Allahabad High Court pass orders in Hindi; they must understand that there have to stick to constitutional norms," he said..Bar & Bench also reached out to Senior Advocate and former President of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, Amrendra Nath Singh, who said,"He has expressed his own concern and it is only an advice which has nothing to do with the bail issue. The government may or may not consider the advice of Justice Shekhar Yadav, in terms of bringing a law in honor of Lord Rama and Krishna."."State of Uttar Pradesh doesn't accept the directions given by courts:" Former Allahabad HC Chief Justice Govind Mathur [Watch video interview]