India, Nov. 11 -- Judges do not sit to settle scores and a vindictive stance is incompatible with their oath to uphold the Constitution and the law, the Supreme Court underlined while emphasising that an attempt to avoid a binding precedent conveys a "measure of pettiness", inconsistent with the detachment that judicial reasoning demands.

"The gavel is an instrument of reason and not a weapon of reprisal. Judges across our country must remember that collegiality is the companion virtue of independence and that a reversal on appeal is not a personal affront but the ordinary operation of a constitutional hierarchy that corrects error and settles law. Respect for the senior jurisdiction is not subservience. It is an acknowledgment that all ...