'Our jurisprudence should not be influenced by western jurisprudence'

A war of words broke out in the Supreme Court between Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Indira Jaising over the submission of the law officer that we need not be influenced by judgements of western jurisdictionsThe apex court was hearing a plea by a former woman judicial officer who resigned following an inquiry into her allegations of sexual harassment against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge During the hearing Mehta submitted My friend has relied on western jurisprudence Principally it has always been my respectful submission that our jurisprudence should not be influenced by western jurisprudence The judgements which are court of appeal etc are hierarchically much lower than the Supreme CourtWe dont cite district court judgements before the Supreme Court We have our own system problems and ethos and we need not be influenced by what is stated in some other jurisdictions Mehta said Senior advocate Indira Jaising appearing for the petitioner took strong objection over the SGs nationalistic attitude towards jurisprudence I would like to say that I am impressed by Mr Mehtas nationalistic attitude towards jurisprudence when he says that our courts should not look at UK courts and His nationalism must be applauded by all of us I am an internationalist and I will look for light everywhere And I will place before you judgments from various jurisdictions It is up to you whether to accept it Jaising submitted before a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R GavaiShe also expressed displeasure over the Solicitor General terming the petitioner as emotional and said it is a stereotypical argument Mr Mehtas seriously advanced proposition in writing is nothing short of male chauvinism and stereotyping of a very responsible judicial officer who has had a very distinguished record of service she said Jaising also responded to the SGs submission that reinstatement of the woman law officer after her unproven charge of sexual harassment would send a wrong signal to the whole countryMr Mehta made an argument what is the message sent to the whole country Im sorry to point out the hypocrisy This is an argument of alarm She said The Solicitor General however said that never argued this When Mehta tried to clarify Jaising said It is not fair for him to be allowed to make submissions Mehta then said Nuisance value is a value No I never used the word emotional I said impulsive decision Jaising responded This is why Court proceedings should be recorded On the previous occasion he repeated it ten times It was on the tip of his tongue We must have transcripts of what counsel say in courtMehta however stated I cant be irresponsible My submissions are gender neutral The bench then intervened and reserved its judgment The high court judge against whom sexual harassment complaint was made by her was later given a clean chit in December 2017 by a Rajya Sabhaappointed panel that had probed the allegations The woman in her plea has said that the high court had ignored the categorical finding in the report of the Judges Inquiry Committee dated December 15 2017 terming the petitioners resignation dated July 15 2014 from her post of Additional District Judge unbearable circumstances having no other optionThe plea has added that the Judges Inquiry Committee had opined that the petitioner be reinstated to service since her resignation was tendered under coercion A motion of impeachment was admitted against the high court judge after 58 members of Rajya Sabha supported the womans caseThe report of the panel comprising then Supreme Court judge R Bhanumathi Justice Manjula Chellur then Bombay High Court judge and jurist KK Venugopal now Attorney General for India had given a clean chit to the high court judge and was tabled before the Rajya Sabha on December 15 2017This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever