Why justice must stand above mob: Lessons from Himachal protests

The Himachal Pradesh High Court’s decision in the Yug murder case — commuting the death sentences of two convicts to life imprisonment while acquitting a third — sparked angry street protests and slogans directed at the judiciary. But beneath the emotional outburst lies a question: Can justice survive if judges are forced to look over their shoulders at public anger instead of looking squarely at the law?

Why this matters

At stake is nothing less than judicial independence — the principle that allows judges to decide “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”. The oath every High Court and Supreme Court judge takes is not symbolic. It is the very steel frame that keeps the edifice of justice intact. If that frame bends under the weight of public pressure, the rule of law itself collapses.

What the Constitution says

The framers of the Constitution built multiple safeguards to protect this independence:

Article 50: Mandates separation of the judiciary from the executive.

Articles 124 and 217: Guarantee security of tenure and insulate judicial appointments.

Articles 121 and 211: Bar discussions in Parliament or State legislatures on a judge’s conduct, except during impeachment.

Together, these provisions underline a single aim: justice must be dispensed in the quiet authority of law, not in the clamour of resentment.

What the Supreme Court has held

The Supreme Court, in SP Gupta versus the Union of India (1981), called judicial independence the “lifeblood of constitutional democracy” and cautioned that if judges acted under pressure — whether from the executive, legislature, or public — “the very idea of rule of law would collapse.” The Court stressed that the judiciary must remain “free from pressures or influence, direct or indirect, from any quarter.”

Can public anger decide verdicts?

To hold processions against a verdict is to suggest that judicial reasoning can be corrected by decibel levels. That reduces justice to a contest of slogans. The dangers are evident: in every high-profile case, evidence and legal reasoning would be replaced by the loudest cry and the angriest slogan. Justice would cease to be blind; it would be cowed.

A judge who “plays to the gallery” ceases to be a judge. He becomes a performer. The majesty of law disappears when verdicts reflect popular sentiment instead of judicial conscience. Such a drift dismantles democracy instead of strengthening it.

Criticism vs coercion

Reasoned critique of judgments is not only permissible but welcome. Judicial discourse grows when decisions are debated and dissected. But there is a line — between critique and coercion, between analysis and intimidation. Crossing that line corrodes public confidence. Judges, though fallible, are accountable through appeals and reviews, not through abuses hurled at their doors.

Why Himachal episode is a warning

For many, the protests were a spontaneous outpouring of grief and emotion, not necessarily directed at the judicial reasoning or intended as a challenge to the courts. They reflected the intensity of public sentiment surrounding a deeply painful case.

Yet, viewed in a wider frame, any moment of collective anger is also a reminder of the delicate balance that sustains the justice system. If public fury — however genuine — was ever to dictate verdicts, the judiciary would falter. A judge who begins to fear backlash may hesitate to uphold the law, and that hesitation would shake the very foundation of democracy.

As constitutional experts often say: the strength of a democracy is not measured by the noise of its protests but by its fidelity to protecting those sworn to decide without fear or favour.