Would not accept any government post after retirement: Outgoing CJI Gavai

New Delhi: Outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai, who demits the highest judicial office of the country on November 23, categorically stated that he would not accept any government post after retirement.

Interacting with mediapersons, CJI Gavai made a series of important observations on judicial independence, reservation policy, social media, and the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in the Presidential reference.

Speaking about post retirement life, CJI Gavai said he plans to take “10 days of rest” before deciding his next steps, but added that social service would remain central to his life.

“Social work is in our blood.. I intend to work in tribal areas,” he said.

Advocating reform in the reservation framework, CJI Gavai stressed the need to extend the creamy layer principle to SC/ST quotas to ensure that the benefits of affirmative action reach “those who genuinely need it”.

On the Justice Yashwant Varma issue, he declined to comment, saying the matter is now with Parliament.

Asked whether an FIR should be registered immediately if cash is found at a judge’s residence or whether such cases require the CJI’s approval, he again declined to comment.

Expressing concern over the distortions created by online platforms, the CJI said that social media had become “a problem” not only for the judiciary but for all organs of the government.

“Things we do not even say are written and shown,” CJI Gavai remarked.

“It is not correct to say that if you rule in favour of the government, you are not an independent judge,” he said, rejecting suggestions that a judge’s neutrality is compromised merely because a verdict favours the government.

Clarifying the Supreme Court’s recent opinion on the Presidential reference regarding bills pending before Governors and the President, CJI Gavai said the Constitution Bench had not disturbed any earlier ruling of a two-judge Bench.

“We have not set aside the earlier decision. We have only clarified, for the future, what the constitutional position should be,” he stated.

The remarks came a day after the ceremonial Bench proceedings, where CJI Gavai had highlighted the top court’s adoption of a “Swadeshi interpretation” in its latest Constitution Bench opinion.

Responding to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s observation that “a fresh breeze of Indian-ness has started flowing in the judgments”, CJI Gavai on Friday said: “In yesterday’s judgment, we did not use a single foreign judgment and we used Swadeshi interpretation.”

S-G Mehta, the second-highest law officer of the Centre, praised the Bench for clearly distinguishing India’s Constitutional framework from the American and British systems.

“Your lordships said we have our own jurisprudence, and the judgment answered everything in just 110 pages. It is a new thing. Judgment should be a judgment, and not an article for a law review,” he added.

IANS