Supreme Court Questions Delhi High Court’s Guidelines on Judgment Writing

The Supreme Court has raised concerns over a Delhi High Court directive that criticized a lower court judge and outlined how judgments should be written. During a hearing on a petition filed by the judge, a bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka questioned the legitimacy of such guidelines. “How can the High Court dictate how a judgment should be written? This interferes with judicial independence,” Justice Oka remarked.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the High Court, assured the Supreme Court that no further orders were necessary and requested four weeks to seek instructions. The court will hear the case again on September 25.

This hearing follows a recent incident where the Supreme Court expressed displeasure over comments made by the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding its orders. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had cautioned against making remarks that could lead to contempt proceedings.

Attorney General and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta both urged the Supreme Court to take the matter seriously, with Mehta noting that the issue stemmed from a land dispute and involved serious contempt.

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