Incidents of judges being threatened "serious", says SC; asks states to file report on security

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday termed “serious” the incidents of judges being threatened and asked the states to file status reports on the security they are providing to the judicial officers.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant also issued notice to the CBI which has taken over the investigation into the recent incident of alleged mowing down of a judge at Dhanbad.

The apex court was informed by the counsel appearing for Jharkhand that the probe into the July 28 incident has been handed over to the CBI.

The bench told Attorney General K K Venugopal that there are several cases that involve gangsters and high-profile persons and there are instances of judges getting threats or abusive messages.

“There is no freedom to the judges to even file a complaint,” the bench said, adding that police or the CBI is not helping the judiciary if such complaints are filed.

“We will hear the Jharkhand matter on Monday (August 9). We are issuing notice to the CBI,” the bench said.

In wake of the Dhanbad incident, the top court has taken suo moto cognizance on the issue of safeguarding courts and protecting judges.

District and Sessions Judge-8 of Dhanbad court, Uttam Anand, was out on a morning walk on July 28 when he was killed by an auto-rickshaw at Randhir Verma Chowk near the district court in the Sadar police station area.