CJI-designate J S Khehar bid farwell to outgoing CJ I Thakur by calling him an “extraordinary man with extraordinary qualities”. CJI-designate J S Khehar bid farwell to outgoing CJ I Thakur by calling him an “extraordinary man with extraordinary qualities”.

In his speech at an event to mark the end of his tenure, outgoing Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Tuesday noted that the country cannot progress unless the judiciary is equipped to deal with the challenges that lie ahead. He went on to add that he would pray that the judiciary continues to remain fearless and doing what people expect it to. “I may be retiring but will keep praying for its prestige, from outside the sanctum sanctorum of Supreme Court,” Thakur said. It was during Thakur’s time as CJI that the government locked horns with the judiciary over the appointment and elevation of judges. They are yet to arrive at a consensus on the Memorandum of Procedure dealing with the elevation of judges.

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 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,” he said.

Dealing with the emerging areas of litigations, the CJI said, “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.”

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Speaking at the same event, CJI-designate J S Khehar bid farwell to Thakur by calling him an “extraordinary man with extraordinary qualities”. “There were media reports J Thakur would be Vice-President but he laughed it off. I said why Vice-President, why not President?” Khehar said.

The outgoing CJI and CJI-designate were at their witty best. Thakur said that the “crowd is here to welcome you”, to which Khehar replied “no, they are here to bid farewell to a terrible CJI”. Khehar also said that “CJI Thakur has released perhaps the largest number of books; it should be some sort of record.”

The Supreme Court Bar Association president also heaped praises on Thakur. “He isn’t Thakur of Sholay; unlike him he rules out heart in both halves of this real film,” he said.

However, Justice J Chelameswar, a member of the collegium, skipped Thakur’s farewell that was organised by the SC Bar Association. He had previously refused to attend collegium meetings chaired by Thakur and demanded that the minutes of the meetings must be recorded. He was also the lone judge who was in favour of doing away with the collegium system when a five-judge Constitution Bench struck down an amendment to validate the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act.

With PTI inputs

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