CHENNAI: Stay aloof, avoid personal contact with individual lawyers and do not have mobile contacts or closed chamber meetings with practicing advocates. These are among Madras high court’s latest set of advisories to subordinate judicial officers in Tamil Nadu, urging them to maintain professional decorum and uphold the integrity of the judiciary.
“Close association with individual members of the Bar, particularly those who practice in the same court, shall be eschewed.A judicial officer should practice a degree of aloofness consistent with the dignity of his office,” said an official circular issued on April 18 by the registrar-general of Madras high court.
“Judicial officers of district judiciary shall avoid mobile contacts and closed chamber meetings with the practicing advocates, unless it is necessary to have such chamber meetings and mobile contact with the Bar association office bearers relating to common issues and smooth functioning of the court,” the circular said.
Every judicial officer must at all times be conscious that they are under public gaze and there should be no act or omission by them which is unbecoming of the high office they occupy and the public esteem in which that office is held, it added.
Calling upon the subordinate judicial officers to ensure strict adherence to judicial ethics as core conduct, the circular said the behaviour and conduct of judicial officers of the district judiciary must reaffirm people’s faith in the impartiality of the judiciary.
“Accordingly, any act of a judicial officer, whether in official or personal capacity, which erodes the credibility of this perception, has to be avoided,” the circular said.
Judicial officers shall avoid consistent and lengthy unofficial mobile conversations during working hours. The instructions shall be followed scrupulously and any deviation or violation in this regard will be viewed seriously, it concluded.
“Close association with individual members of the Bar, particularly those who practice in the same court, shall be eschewed.A judicial officer should practice a degree of aloofness consistent with the dignity of his office,” said an official circular issued on April 18 by the registrar-general of Madras high court.
“Judicial officers of district judiciary shall avoid mobile contacts and closed chamber meetings with the practicing advocates, unless it is necessary to have such chamber meetings and mobile contact with the Bar association office bearers relating to common issues and smooth functioning of the court,” the circular said.
Every judicial officer must at all times be conscious that they are under public gaze and there should be no act or omission by them which is unbecoming of the high office they occupy and the public esteem in which that office is held, it added.
Calling upon the subordinate judicial officers to ensure strict adherence to judicial ethics as core conduct, the circular said the behaviour and conduct of judicial officers of the district judiciary must reaffirm people’s faith in the impartiality of the judiciary.
“Accordingly, any act of a judicial officer, whether in official or personal capacity, which erodes the credibility of this perception, has to be avoided,” the circular said.
Judicial officers shall avoid consistent and lengthy unofficial mobile conversations during working hours. The instructions shall be followed scrupulously and any deviation or violation in this regard will be viewed seriously, it concluded.
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