Supreme Court to look into plea to distinguish between criticism of judiciary and online distortion of what judges actually say in court

Chief Justice Surya Kant highlighted the thin line judges walk after a litigant expressed concern over how social media distorts judges' statements, leading to unfair criticism. The petitioner, Raja Choudhary, urged the Chief Justice to list his petition early, citing former apex court judge Justice K.M. Joseph's recent speech. Chief Justice Kant asked the petitioner to wait for the Union government's response.

The petitioner argued that the distinction between factual judicial record and distorted representations in the public sphere is crucial to the integrity of the judicial record. He emphasized that oral courtroom exchanges can quickly be reduced to clips, headlines, screenshots, memes, or social media posts detached from original proceedings, acquiring an authority independent of the original context.

The apex court had sought responses from central ministries regarding a petition seeking a CBI probe into the activities of the Cockroach Janta Party and the commercial exploitation of oral remarks made in court proceedings.