Terming the Supreme Court as the common man’s last court of refuge, newly-appointed Chief Justice of India Hl Dattu said that each case reaching the highest court should be treated as a ‘sensitive’ one.
In his maiden media interaction, Justice Dattu admitted that the workload of judges has gone up in recent times and the role of the Supreme Court has assumed significance with more and more sensitive cases reaching the Court by way of PIls.
“The number of sensitive cases has gone up over the past decade,” CJI said, sharing his thoughts on the change that the Supreme Court has undergone since his elevation to it in December 2008. When asked to shed more light on his comment, he pointed out that any matter that relates to common man is sensitive. “Not just PIls that expose a public wrong, even a bail matter or a property dispute can be sensitive looked from the point of view of the litigant," he explained.
Does he feel the work pressureIJ "Definitely the workload has gone up. But we have to be more responsible as this is the last court for a common man," he said.Dressed in a traditional kurta-pyjama flanked by his wife Gayathri, his son and daughter-in-law, the CJI said that after taking oath he had no time to rest with a steady stream of visitors calling on him to convey their greetings.
Justice Dattu will have a 14-month tenure extending till December 2, 2015. On being asked about his priorities as CJI, he gave no comments, refusing to give an early opinion prior to understanding the challenges before him. But his routine has not changed much. "I do 16 hours of work every day," Justice Dattu said, conscious of the fact that this won't get altered. Only thing that soothes him is an occasional dose of Carnatic music and a regular cup of nicely-brewed south Indian coffee, which was served to the mediapersons and also a delegation of lawyers from Karnataka who came to greet him.
Ahead of him, Justice Dattu has a huge task not just as CJI but as the judge hearing several important cases including the 2G case.
Earlier in the day, at his swearing-in function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, he was greeted by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and BJP veteran lK Advani. Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Rajeev Shulka were the only prominent opposition leaders to be present at the function.