Supreme Court on Friday mentioned that the State’s neglect in the recent killing of judge Uttam Anand who was acting as Additional District and Sessions Judge at Dhanbad, cannot be overlooked.
A Division Bench including CJI NV Ramana and Justice Surya Kant mentioned that being fully informed that Dhanbad is a mafia range where many advocates have been killed and judges have been hit in the past, the State should have given some security to the Judicial officer at most limited around their colonies.
The comments came while the bench was regarding the suo motu case considered by it on the matter of security of judges and courts in the viewing of the killing of Additional District Judge Uttam Anand of Jharkhand last week. The Bench, accordingly, urged all States to acknowledge and file a status report with regard to what kind of protection they have offered to judicial officers.
Attorney General KK Venugopal whose assistance the Court asked in the present interest, submitted that,
“Judges as a family are more vulnerable than bureaucrats. This is an open court where one person succeeds and other doesn’t. There has to be given adequate security. There has to be an organisation which determines the amount of vulnerability depending on the kind of cases.”
