Supreme Court judge Justice J Chelameswar, who is the seniormost after CJI, does not want a farewell in his honour as he prepares to retire on June 22 this year. Citing personal reasons, Justice Chelameswar on Wednesday declined an invite by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) inviting him to the customary farewell function to be organised on May 18, the last working day before the court closes for summer break.
With an eventful six years and nine months’ tenure at his back, Justice Chelameswar was in news recently following the unprecedented Press conference held at his official residence where he was joined by three other seniormost judges of apex court — Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B lokur and Kurian Joseph, in holding a Press conference against the arbitrary practice adopted by the CJI to allocate politically sensitive cases to a select Bench.
Justice Chelameswar was later seen meeting an Opposition MP from CPI that same day following which Opposition MPs decided to bring a removal motion against CJI Dipak Misra based on the allegations made by the judges.
But this was not the first and the last time that this judge has been in news. Earlier, Justice Chelameswar stood out by raising the banner of protest against the non-transparent and arbitrary functioning of the Collegium. He refused to attend the Collegium meetings on this count. Incidentally, he was the lone judge to dissent against the majority judgement striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act as unconstitutional.
Of late, his order constituting a five-judge Bench to hear a PIl against CJI for alleged favours granted to a lucknow-based medical college again brought him in news. That same day, CJI constituted a five-judge Bench that held CJI is the master of roster and he alone can list cases. This order overruled Justice Chelameswar’s decision. This week too, when Justice Chelameswar was faced with a petition by two Congress MPs challenging the order of Rajya Sabha Chairman dismissing the removal motion brought by 64 MPs against CJI, he asked the petitioners to come the next day. Before that, CJI passed orders to list the case before a five-judge Bench.
Keeping up the tradition followed at the Bar to give a farewell function for every retiring judge, SCBA met Justice Chelameswar at his residence on Wednesday asking him to reconsider his decision. He declined the invite citing personal reasons. He told the bar body members that while moving out of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to another high court, he similarly refused to receive a farewell. This is the third consecutive Wednesday when he was absent from work. On this day, judges meet for a common lunch brought from one of the judges’ residence.