Apex court 'cracks whip' on official insensitivity

New Delhi: Describing government officials as "insensitive to the suffering of people", the Supreme Court on Friday remarked they "need regular huntering (flogging)" to make them work.

The observation came from the second senior-most judge of the apex court, Justice B.N. Agrawal, who had on Thursday abandoned a hearing in a graft case against the judiciary terming senior counsel Shanti Bhushan's "contemptuous" allegations against the apex court as akin to those of a "street urchin".

Justice Agrawal on Friday lost his cool over the failure of the union government and all but two state governments to respond to the court's July 14 suggestion for ways and means of addressing police inertia in filing criminal cases on the basis of complaints from common people.

"Government officials are simply insensitive to the suffering of millions of people across the country. ... They think it's their 'swarajya' [own rule]," said Justice Agrawal. The bench also includes Justice G.S. Singhvi.

"This is your style of functioning. You need regular 'huntering'," the judge said.

Only Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh got back with remedial measures.

The bench held that if the police failed to file a criminal case, then citizens could approach the nearest judicial magistrate, who could direct police to register a First Information Report.