New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) Observing that public trust and confidence in court are “very important” because courts are the last remedy, outgoing Supreme Court judge Justice Rajesh Bindal on Wednesday said the problems, if any, affecting the judiciary should be sorted out in-house and not be discussed in public.
Justice Bindal, who demits office on Wednesday after his stint of a little over three years as an apex court judge, was showered with praises by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant who termed him a distinguished jurist and said he “strengthened” the institutions wherever he served.
The CJI said Justice Bindal belonged to that “rare class of judges” whose contribution is measured not only by what they decided, but also by what they enabled the institution to do better.
Justice Kant was speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association to bid farewell to Justice Bindal, who was elevated to the apex court on February 13, 2023.
In his farewell address, Justice Bindal said no institution is perfect and if there are some errors or problems somewhere, that should be sorted out in-house and not discussed in public.
“You see, no institution is perfect. Nobody is perfect. If there are some errors somewhere, some problems somewhere, that we should sort out in-house only. We should not discuss anything outside that. This is what I feel,” Justice Bindal said.
“We can solve everything. But there is some habit of saying in the public and if we say something or you say something in public, that has more weight as compared to a common person because we are part of the system,” he said.
Justice Bindal said the system is open and the chief justice of the Supreme Court as well of high courts are always accessible.
“You can get all your problems solved instead of discussing in the public platform,” he said.
Saying that he was leaving the institution with full satisfaction, Justice Bindal said judges decide cases as per law only.
“The only problem is if somebody wins, he says I have full faith and if somebody loses, he says courts are wrong,” he said, adding that public trust and confidence is “very important” because courts are the last remedy.
He said the effort of lawyers should be to assist the court and not to win the case only.
In his address, the CJI said “The true distinction of Justice Bindal’s career lies not only in where he served but in how he strengthened the institution wherever he served.” He also remembered his association with Justice Bindal from the days when both of them were practising as lawyers in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and later, as judges of that court.
The CJI said there was no parallel to Justice Bindal in disposal of cases.
“While I can’t make any exaggerated claim for myself but I too had an image and reputation of reasonable disposal but there was no parallel to Justice Bindal. He was unparalleled,” the CJI said.
“I would say that he belongs to that rare class of judges whose contribution is measured not only by what they decided but also by what they enabled the institution to do better,” the CJI said.
He said there are judges who leave behind memorable citations and there are judges who leave behind improved systems. “My brother Justice Rajesh Bindal leaves behind both and that feat is worthy of our respect and gratitude,” he said.
Speaking at the function, Attorney General R Venkataramani highlighted Justice Bindal’s immense contribution to the judiciary and praised his long and distinguished judicial career marked by discipline, institutional commitment and a forward-looking embrace of technology in court administration.
He pointed to over 100 judgments delivered by Justice Bindal during his stint in the apex court, many of which reflected sensitivity towards gender justice, procedural fairness and the dignity of litigants.
Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Vikas Singh also lauded the judicial journey of Justice Bindal and described him as a first-generation lawyer whose rise through the ranks serves as an inspiration for young members of the legal fraternity.
“Justice Bindal defined the essence of our calling that when a judge sits on that bench, they belong to no one but the truth,” Singh said.
Justice Bindal was part of several key verdicts, including the one in which a nine-judge Constitution bench of the apex court by a majority of 7:2 held all private properties cannot form part of “material resources of the community” empowering states to take them over for distribution to serve “common good” under the Constitution.
Born on April 16, 1961, in Ambala, Justice Bindal began his legal career in 1985 after earning his law degree from the Kurukshetra University and was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006.
He then went on to serve in multiple high courts, including the Jammu and Kashmir HC, Calcutta HC, and Allahabad HC, where also he held positions as the chief justice.
With Justice Bindal’s retirement, the total number of vacancies in the top court, having 34 sanctioned posts of judges, becomes two. PTI ABA SKM SJK ABA MNK MNK
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