New Delhi:
Chief Justice of India designate Justice BR Gavai praised former Chief Justice NV Ramana exchanged a warm hug, while the former received advice from his predecessor on the role of the judiciary.
Speaking at his book Narratives Off The Bench: A Judge Speaks’s launch, Justice Ramana said Justice Gavai would bring humility and empathy to the judiciary. “As elder brothers and sisters in the judicial family, the honourable judges of the Supreme Court have a moral and institutional duty to look after all the judges of the country,” he said on a note of advice to his soon-to-be successor.
Justice Ramana said the judiciary thrives on people’s faith and “unwarranted attacks on this institution affect the very foundation of people’s trust”, adding that the institution has emerged stronger each time it has faced challenges.
In the display of bonhomie, Justice Gavai called Justice Ramana his elder brother, crediting him for his vision in making justice accessible to the common citizens. “I think he must be one of the first Chief Justice of India who had broken that ice of the judges being isolated from the public,” he said.
“He believed in going to the people. He believed in meeting the people. I think he was truly the people’s Chief Justice of India,” Justice Gavai, who is to take over as the Chief Justice on May 14, said.
Justice Gavai also highlighted the three commonalities he shares with Justice Ramana and Justice Surya Kant. “All three of us are coming from a rural background. All three of us belong to agricultural families, and all three of us are first-generation lawyers,” he said.
Justice Gavai also recalled the historic moment in the history of the Supreme Court when nine-judges took oath at one go in 2021 when CJI Ramana was at the helm of affairs. He said one of the judges sworn in that day, Justice BV Nagarathna, is in line to be the first woman Chief Justice of India. “I found him (Justice Ramana) to be a true human being, very loving and caring, a man full of humanity, empathy, sympathy and compassion, all that is printed in his judgments and also the speeches that are presented to us in the compilation of the ‘Narratives of the bench: A Judge speaks’,” Justice Gavai said.