Embroiled in controversy for better part of his tenure, outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra held court for the last time on Monday and later asserted that Indian judiciary is the “most robust institution” in the world and young lawyers were assets having potential to develop the jurisprudence.
“Our judiciary has been strongest judiciary in the world having capability to handle mind boggling number of cases,” Justice Misra, who will retire as the CJI on Tuesday, said while speaking at the farewell function organised on the premises of the SC.
Saying that justice must have human face, the CJI said, “History can be sometimes kind, and unkind. I don’t judge people by their history but by their activities, perspective.”
“In my whole career as a judge, I never dissociated myself from the lady of equity,” Justice Misra said.
“I am indebted to Bar at every level and go from here with satisfaction,” he added.
He spoke after Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Ranjan Gogoi praised him saying that his greatest contribution has been to civil liberties and cited his recent verdicts in this regard.
Justice Gogoi, who will be sworn-in as the CJI on Wednesday, said Justice Misra was a remarkable judge.
He said, “If we fail in endeavour to hold true to our Constitutional ideals, we will continue to kill, hate each other,” and added that the judges in the Supreme Court are all committed and they will remain committed.
“We live in times when what we should eat, wear have stopped being little things of our personal lives,” Justice Gogoi said while addressing the farewell function for the CJI.
In the court, the CJI stopped a lawyer who broke into a song to wish him long life, to say that he was “responding from the heart” but will speak from his mind in the evening.
Justice Misra, who presided over benches that delivered a series of key verdicts, including the ones on Aadhaar and homosexuality during the last 10 days, appeared to be emotional during the court’s proceedings which lasted for 25 minutes.
At the CJI-led Bench, also comprising Justices Gogoi and AM Khanwilkar, Misra made it clear at the outset that he would not hear matters listed for urgent hearing and they would be dealt by his successor on October 3.
The brief proceedings in CJI’s courtroom witnessed an emotional turn and drama when a lawyer crooned, “Tum jiyo hazaron saal...,” singing the opening lines of a Hindi film song from the late 1950s usually played on birthdays.
The Chief Justice in his inimitable style said, “no, no” and stopped the lawyer from singing further. Then, in a strange turn of events, lawyer RP Luthra mentioned two ostensibly controversial tweets by senior lawyer Indira Jaising and advocate Prashant Bhushan against the outgoing CJI, criticising his recent judgments, including the verdict on the Koregaon-Bhima violence case.
He urged the court to take cognisance of the tweets, but the Bench didn’t respond after perusing them.
Later in the day, the CJI visited journalists on the apex court premises and parried all the questions including those related to his experience as head of the judiciary.
The CJI sopke at length about English literature and famous poet and writers.
“What are your future post retirement plans,” a scribe asked. “Astrology is not a science, yet people believe in it. I am not an astrologer,” the CJI responded.