New Delhi, May 29 (PTI) Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday lauded the contributions of Justices J K Maheshwari and Pankaj Mithal to the judiciary and bid them farewell.
Friday was the last working day for Justice Maheshwari, who will be demitting office on June 28 and Justice Mithal, who will be superannuating on June 16. The Supreme Court will be having partial working days from June 1 to July 12.
CJI Kant said farewells are rarely an easy occasion in the judiciary, and such moments become even more difficult when two judges, each having contributed to the institution in their own distinct and meaningful ways, are superannuating.
“This evening is therefore marked by a deep sense of gratitude and reflection as we bid farewell to Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice Pankaj Mithal, after their long and accomplished years in judicial service,” he said.
CJI Kant thanked the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for organising the farewell function in the court premises with the warmth, grace and affection that both the judges richly deserve, and said it gives them a chance to speak about colleagues who brought to this institution not only legal acumen but also conviction and an unwavering sense of purpose.
He said that both Justice Maheshwari and Mithal are the individuals, “who gave the finest years of their lives to an institution far greater than themselves, and in doing so, they strengthened it with dignity and unflinching commitment.” CJI said that Justice Maheshwari’s journey carried the imprint of discipline, humility, deep personal integrity, the values shaped by his modest beginnings and people would agree that even after occupying the most important constitutional offices, those values never left him.
Justice Maheshwari was part of the Constitution bench which observed that the Centre has not provided any rationale to “rake up” the issue of settlement more than two decades after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and rejected the government’s curative petition seeking an additional Rs 7,844 crore from the successor firms of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) to extend higher compensation to the victims.
Justice Maheshwari-led bench, last year ordered a CBI probe into the Karur stampede in Tamil Nadu in which 41 people were killed, saying that the incident has shaken the national conscience and deserves a fair and impartial investigation.
Justice Mithal, who has given several notable judgments, was part of the seven-judge Constitution bench which held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes (SC), which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.
In his separate but concurring judgment, Justice Mithal had batted for a fresh look at the reservation policy, and referred to a 1961 letter by Jawaharlal Nehru in which the former prime minister lamented the habit of giving reservations and privileges to any caste or group.
Speaking about Justice Mithal, CJI Kant said he brought to the bench a personality marked by remarkable judicial temperament and a deeply human understanding of the role of a judge.
Revealing that Justice Mithal is an avid stamp collector, the CJI said a stamp collector is someone who finds meaning in details that others may overlook, someone who understands that even a small object can carry within it an entire history; in some ways, this wonderful habit or the hobby reflects his judicial ideology.
“As a jurist, Justice Mithal has consistently embodied the understanding that the Constitution is simply not a textual document to be interpreted but a living promise to be fulfilled,” the CJI said.
Justice Maheshwari, who lauded the support of bar bodies, said he started his legal journey from Madhya Pradesh and became Chief Justices in Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim, where he witnessed different cultures, terrains and languages but what did not change was the aspiration of the common man for seeking justice.
He said, “This institution has a gravity of its own. Here I saw the finest legal minds spark. I will miss the passion, the creativity of this bar…” Justice Mithal, in his farewell address, recalled his journey from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to the Supreme Court and said one concern that increasingly occupied his mind was the condition and the future of the judicial delivery system. From the vantage point of the apex court, one got a wider and sometimes a sobering view of the challenges confronting the judiciary, he added.
He said the mounting tendency of cases is not merely a statistical issue or an administrative concern; it directly affects the life, liberties and aspirations of millions of citizens who approach courts with hope and faith.
“Every pending case represents a human story awaiting resolution, a family dispute, prolonged distress and an undertrial awaiting liberty, a commercial matter affecting livelihoods or a citizen seeking protection of constitutional rights,” Justice Mithal said.
The programme was attended by apex court judges, their family members, lawyers and court staff. PTI MNL MNL KSS KSS
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