Government seeks details on Tweeting judges
By IANSWednesday, August 11, 2010
SHIMLA - The central government has sought information from the Supreme Court and high courts about judges who are airing their views on blogs and social networking site Twitter.
A communication in this regard has also been received by the Himachal Pradesh High Court from the union law ministry.
Confirming this, Chief Justice Kurian Joseph told IANS Wednesday: “We have received a communication but we are collecting information in this regard.”
The ministry’s letter has sought the information from the secretary-general of the Supreme Court and registrar-generals of high courts.
A Himachal Pradesh High Court official here said Chief Justice Joseph has directed the registrar-general to circulate the ministry’s letter among all the 11 judges for their comments on the issue.
The letter asks whether the high court judges are airing their voice through blogs and Twitter. Whether it is not against the code of conduct of the judges? And if so, what preventive measures are being taken to check the trend?
The ministry’s communication comes in the backdrop of Karnataka High Court Judge D.V. Shylendra Kumar slamming the Supreme Court collegium — council of five judges which deals with issues of judicial misconduct and appointments — in his blog.
Kumar started his blog “justdvskumar” in August last year and posted details of the assets owned by him and his wife Veena Kumar. He was the first judge to make public his assets while the issue was still being debated by the judiciary.
He has been vocal in his criticism of the former chief justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, particularly over his opposition to assets declaration by judges and the application of Right to Information Act (RTI) to judiciary.
