On a day when the Supreme Court bid farewell to its outgoing Chief Justice P Sathasivam and another lady judge Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, it was a celebration of two tenures in contrast in more ways than one. Both had their last working day on Friday.
Always “late” to court, Justice Misra did not make it on time to her farewell function too on Friday, arriving 15 minutes behind schedule. Conceding as much in her speech about her “late lateef” habit, Justice Misra said, “The clock was my greatest villain.”Justice Misra, who is to retire on Sunday, rarely arrived at 10.30 am, the scheduled time for judges to start holding court. And the pun wasn’t missing when CJI-designate Justice RM lodha spoke about her: “She always used to tell us that you enter court room early.”
Justice Misra was clearly apologetic for this. “I hope you will bail me out as I always tried to compensate with quality delivery of justice,” she said in her last public speech, attended by judges, eminent jurists, lawyers of SC Bar Association and the staff of Supreme Court.A picture in contrast was CJI P Sathasivam, known for his punctuality. Set to retire on Saturday, the CJI said, “Five principles I dearly adhered from day one - be punctual, be patient, be humane, be firm and polite, and give all fair due process.”
He also apologised for not being able to do enough for the bar, but the list of his achievements - bringing down case pendency in SC (from 67,964 nine months back to 63,500), filling up judicial posts (four SC judges, six CJs and 89 judges of HCs) and vacancies in Supreme Court, introducing system for enquiring sexual harassment complaints, holding of National lok Adalat to clear backlog, expediting work of the new Court complex at Pragati Maidan with a budget of Rs 45 crore - was more than enough for the Bar to bail him out.
Stressing more on punctuality, he admitted, “It is not as a credit I say, but punctuality is a must considering the enormous work we have at hand.” It was for this reason that he refused to attend international seminars and conferences which fell on working days. “I have not taken a single day holiday and even my sons’ wedding I held during vacation.”That was a tough call to take, considering the fact that Justice Misra, on the other hand, told lady bar members two days ago during an interaction that she used to come late to court as she had to attend to her ailing husband.
For this reason too, while Justice Misra was accompanied by her extended family of children, in-laws and grandchildren, CJI Sathasivam enjoyed the company of only his wife, as he mentioned in the speech that of his two sons, one is a software engineer and the other a farmer tending the rural lands in CJI’s hometown in Tamil Nadu.
“I was among buffaloes and cows till my graduation,” the CJI said, mentioning of his humble beginnings. He took up a career in law only after getting married but Justice Misra, who was the daughter of a former Patna High Court Chief Justice, studied law and had a “relatively late marriage” at the age of 26. She went on to be the first woman Chief Justice of Jharkhand HC, while the CJI, who has never headed any HC as Chief Justice, commanded well from the front at the helm of the highest court in the land for nine months as CJI.