Supreme Court of India Is A Chief Justice Driven Court, That Has To Change: CJI DY Chandrachud

"I am delighted as chief justice that we are at full strength with the Addition of the last seven appointments. When I became a judge in 2000, one of my chief justices who was from the Patna High Court said you are the last on the bench of 42 judges of the Bombay High Court, as it then stood, so you are the 'Guard Babu', we call the last judge to be appointed as the 'Guard Babu'. We have 7 'Guard Babus' in the Supreme Court. But hopefully not for long because one of my mission has been to ensure that this full strength Supreme Court is not an aberration but a regular feature of the Supreme Court. There is absolutely no justification or reason for the collegium to keep even a single vacancy unfilled in the Supreme Court and that will be my mission in the future as well", expressed Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday.‘I have always felt that the Supreme Court of India is a chief justice-driven court, that has to change’- CJI“I have always felt that the Supreme Court of India is a chief justice-driven court, that has to change. The chief justice, in a sense, is a friend for everyone among the colleagues, some may call him the ‘primus inter pares’ which is the latin word which means first among the equals. But we do the same judicial work. I do believe that I must end this by thanking my colleagues who are there in the audience, for the work that they are doing in the Supreme Court, not just by burning the midnight oil and making sure that those SLPs are disposed off- Not dismissed but disposed off- but also in terms of upgrading the infrastructure of the Supreme Court”.“So many of our colleagues have this diverse experience. One of the problems that I always felt that though we have such tremendous experience as judges of the High Court and as chief Justice of the High Court, when we land up here, nobody seems to ever seems to tap on that experience in the Supreme Court. We are then reduced to just being judges and nothing else and perhaps doing work which single judges of the High Court do, as in the case of grant of bail. So I thought we might change this pattern in the Supreme Court because there is enormous experience which judges of the High Court bring with them when they come to the Supreme Court which Must be tapped into because this is not a personal turf or property of the chief Justice of India”, articulated the CJIThe CJI was speaking at the SCBA-organised felicitation function for the 8 newly-appointed judges to the Supreme Court'121 years of cumulative experience, across 13 states and 1 union territory! This gives idea of diversity, depth of experience which my 8 colleagues bring to the bench'- CJIHe proceeded to discus that these appointments which have been marked by this felicitation "reflect truly the diversity of the nation"- "Our colleagues come from diverse states- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana. I am including both their parent state and the state where they have been chief Justice. 13 states and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh- what a sense of diversity this brings to the court! I was just doing a little bit of a mathematical calculation and I had my cell phone to help me in doing that all our colleagues today have been appointed between 2006 and 2011 as judges of the High Court. If you make a sum total of their cumulative experience as judges, it comes to about 121 years, the cumulative experience, 121 years, 13 states, one union territory! This gives you an idea of the diversity and the depth of the experience which our colleagues bring to the bench. It is important to say this because very often we are criticised as the collegium and as an institution in regard to the source from which we make judicial appointments. We are criticised on the grounds that we are not diverse enough, we are not democratic enough. I ask myself a simple question- what other tribute to diversity can you have than my eight colleagues who are present today on the Dias?" "We also have some fantastic cricket players! The lawyers better beware of the next cricket match. I was in fact delaying responding to Mr Vikas Singh' request for a cricket match because I knew we are going to get some top notch cricketers from the High Courts. We began this morning with a celebration of Justice Aniruddha Bose’s birthday. Being a judge is somewhat like being in school- you get into the class when the bell rings and you get up when the bell rings, except you don’t get up until your usher moves your chair and taps you on the back. We began this morning with a very nice chocolate and orange cake that was the organised by Justice Sanjay Kaul, he is our most imaginative morning cake provider on days of birthday, and we now end the day with a felicitation, for I am not planning to go back to the chambers this evening. What a beautiful day for all of us in our lives",...

Supreme Court of India Is A Chief Justice Driven Court, That Has To Change: CJI DY Chandrachud

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