NEW DELHI: The fulsome praise showered by the Supreme Court on the Delhi high court for deciding the sexual harassment case against film-maker Mahmood Farooqui may appear to be against the run of play because of the perception that HC verdicts are routinely overturned by the apex court.
However, a quick scan of important cases heard by the apex court by way of appeals against high court verdicts reveals that, contrary to the widely held impression, in the majority of cases the SC has not only agreed with the HCs but even rebuked state governments for contesting well-reasoned orders. There have, of course, been instances of the apex court faulting HCs for falling into error.

“The Supreme Court needs to be complimented for complimenting the high court,” said a senior lawyer.

In March last year, the Calcutta HC ordered the CBI to take hold of all material, including Narada sting operation videos allegedly showing Trinamool members taking bribe, and register a preliminary enquiry (PE) in 72 hours. The West Bengal government cried foul and accused the CBI of political vendetta and appealed in the SC. The apex court strongly criticised the Mamata Banerjee government, made its counsel apologise, and held that the appeal was “most unfortunate” deserving “outright rejection”.

The SC had said: “We have perused the order under challenge and it emerges that the HC took into consideration the material which required holding of PE at the hands of the CBI. We find no infirmity with the determination of the HC as the rights of petitioners are fully protected.”

In February 2015, the Delhi high court restrained Prasar Bharati from sharing the free live telecast feed of cricket matches available to Doordarshan with cable operators. In August last year, the SC said the HC had correctly decided the case and affirmed the order.

The Delhi high court will also draw satisfaction in the SC fully endorsing its verdict convicting four persons and awarding them death penalty for the gang rape and murder of ‘Nirbhaya’ in December 2012. The Supreme Court, after minute scrutiny of every piece of evidence, found no infirmity in the HC judgment. It is one of those rare cases where the trial court, the HC and the SC were on the same page.

In contrast, the 2001 Parliament attack case shows how scrutiny of evidence at the higher levels of judiciary makes certain evidence, relied on by the trial court, appear doubtful. In this case, the trial court had awarded death sentences on Mohammad Afzal Guru, Shaukat Hussain Guru and SAR Gilani, and a five-year jail term to Afsan Guru. The HC upheld the death sentence for Afzal and Shaukat but acquitted Gilani and Afsan. The SC, despite terming the HC order “well reasoned”, awarded death only to Afzal, a 10-year jail term to Shaukat and upheld the acquittal of Gilani and Afsan.
In November last year, the Supreme Court had upheld an Uttarakhand HC verdict approving the assembly speaker’s decision to disqualify nine MLAs for defecting from Congress and said it was a “well-reasoned order”. In December last year, the SC was again on the same page with the Delhi HC in refusing to accord ‘Vande Mataram’ status equivalent to that of the national anthem.
Last month, it also agreed with the Delhi HC and dismissed a petition filed by AAP member Raghav Chadha, who had challenged the trial judge’s decision to summon him to face proceedings in a defamation case filed against him by finance minister Arun Jaitley for merely retweeting an allegedly defamatory statement by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
However, there are occasions when the SC expressed annoyance with the HCs, as it did last year in the fodder scam case. The Jharkhand HC had said the scam was a product of one conspiracy and hence former Bihar CM and RJD chief Lalu Prasad could not be made to face conspiracy charge in fodder scam cases relating to different treasuries. The SC overturned the order and criticised the HC for “ignoring the settled principles of law” that instances of illegal withdrawal of crores of rupees from every treasury require a separate trial. That is how Lalu Prasad came to be convicted in the second fodder scam case and faces more trials. Source : timesofindia