The outgoing Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Tuesday once again expressed concern over the lack of judges amid growing pendency of cases and asked the judiciary to be ready for future challenges to ensure that the nation remains an “inclusive society”.
Justice Thakur, who served for almost a year as the 43rd CJI, dealt with a range of issues in his farewell address in the apex court premises and said there are as many as three crore cases pending cases in courts across the country and the issue has to be tackled efficiently given the paucity of judges.
The farewell function organised by the SCBA saw the presence of most of the apex court judges and the senior lawyers of the Supreme Court.
Here are some important excerpts from his farewell speech:
Importance of development and peace:
“It is not enough to build buildings and projects, it is more important to build institutions to ensure peace as nothing is possible without peace”
Challenges posed to the judiciary:
“The present has great challenges. We have three crore cases. We have problems of infrastructure. We have problems of judge strength being low… But please remember, we will have greater challenges in the future and that is what we have to be prepared for”.
“You will have very, very serious issues coming up in times not very far from now. You will have issues regarding cyber laws, medico-legal cases, genetics and privacy etc. You will have issues of making India an inclusive society.”
“The nation cannot progress unless judiciary also gets ready to handle the challenges that the development and progress bring with them”.
Advice to lawyers:
“We have seen the race for becoming a judge, efforts to become a judge and very recently the race for becoming a senior advocate. I have always felt that these distinctions should come to you uninvited. You must not invite them you must not ask for them. You must be considered deserving and suitable for such a distinction.”
In a lighter vein:
“One amendment I would like to happen in the Constitution is to let the retired judges practice.”
(All images sourced from PTI)
(With inputs from PTI)