In a Facebook post, he said, "I genuinely believe that the Supreme Court had made some serious mistakes in its judgement by reversing the death penalty awarded by Kerala High Court".
"Possibly these mistakes were made because the court was so overburdened with work that it cannot give as much time to cases as they deserve, which they would have otherwise done, had it not been for this heavy load of cases to decide," he said.
Hence, he had initially said that he would not appear before the court as directed.
However, when he received the apex court's notice and read it, Katju said he realised the court used "very respectful language to me and had requested me, not ordered me, to appear since they seemed to be sincere about their desire to reconsider their judgement and did not have a closed mind."
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Quoting celebrated British Judge Lord Denning, Katju said 'The Judge has not been born who has not made a mistake'.
"We are all humans, and all of us make mistakes, but a gentleman is one who realises his mistake, acknowledges it, and seeks to make amends," Katju said.
"This should apply to judges too. I myself have sometimes made mistakes in my judgements," he said.