Note: Today there is just one important article on pressure on judiciary. Refer to the article of 1st August and 11th December.
8th February 2020 : The Hindu Editorials Notes: Mains Sure Shot
The following are the additional points:
Question – Judiciary under tremendous pressure from public opinion. comment.
Context – The pressure on the judges for death sentence via social media and other public platforms.
- Judiciary should be independent not just from politics but also from public sentiment and judges should deliver justice as per law and not according to the opinion of the majority.
- If an order is not in favour of a particular group then the judge faces backlash. An atmosphere is created whereby pressure is exerted on the judge.
- While public sentiment remains unchanged, it is important to realise that judicial processes demand dispassionate fairness that gives due regard to substantive requirements of sentencing.
- A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980) had laid down the sentencing framework in capital cases (how and in what circumstance the death sentence is to be delivered). It required sentencing courts to consider the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the offence and the offender when deciding the question of punishment i.e. the courts have to consider whether the alternative option of life imprisonment has been unquestionably foreclosed. The death sentence can only be imposed in exceptional cases involving extreme culpability, and such exceptionalism cannot solely be rooted in the brutality of the crime.
हिन्दी