Judgment call

Editors and reporters are not the only ones who would prefer not to listen to former Chief Justice Markandey Katju’s regular homilies in his capacity as chairman of the Press Council of India. His brother judges in the Supreme Court apparently felt the same way, if another former chief justice, J S Verma, is to be believed. At a lecture on the future of the Indian media, the subject of Justice Katju’s strong and frequent criticisms of the Indian media inevitably came up. In that context, Justice Verma said senior judges told him they felt considerable relief when Justice Katju retired in late 2011 since they thought they would be spared his pronouncements. That hope seems to have been belied, Justice Verma joked dryly, since he is regularly heard in his new appointment.