NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Wednesday condemned Justice Arun Mishra ’s praise for PM Narendra Modi at a recent conference and called on apex court judges to maintain judicial independence by refraining from making such statements or show close proximity to the political executive.Mishra, who retires on September 2, had described Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” and a “versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally”.Saying that it “expresses its strong reservations of the statement and condemns it strongly,” the SCBA resolution added, “the SCBA believes any such statement reflects poorly on independence of judiciary and so calls upon the judges not to make statements in future nor show any proximity or closeness to the executive, including higher functionaries.SCBA believes that such proximity and familiarity may impact decision-making process by judges and may give rise to justifiable doubts in the minds of the litigants about the outcome.The resolution was passed by circulation and not through debate in the executive committee. It was signed by president Dushyant Dave , vice-president Kailash Vasdev, joint secretary Rohit Pandey and treasurer Meenesh Dubey.Though the resolution was agreed to by 14 of the 21 members, secretary Ashok Arora stuck a discordant note saying such an important issue should have been debated in the executive committee meeting and not adopted through circulation.Without signing in either the ‘I Agree’ or ‘I do not agree’ column in the circular, Arora told TOI that he and many other senior executive members like Col R Balasubramanian, Arijit Prasad and A C Aggarwala as well as three-four women executive members sought a full-fledged discussion, but the president decided to pass the resolution through circulation, a process which he termed “unjustified and immoral”.Arora said, “Dave is playing politics, sabotaging the cause of the Association. He is using the Association as platform for personal agenda and games. We will have to call for a GBM to get this sorted out.”By another resolution, again through circulation, SCBA expressed concern over the law and order situation in Delhi. Taking note of the “failure” of the law and order machinery, SCBA resolved to take “appropriate proceedings in this regard before the court to get suitable orders to bring immediate normalcy in Delhi and to hold authorities responsible for the failure accountable”. This resolution was not signed by Vasdev and Arora on the ground that the matter is sub judice.