“Taking A Stand And Pushing For It Is A Permissible Democratic Right, Isn’t It?”

“Do you want me to go to jail?” When JUSTICE JASTI CHELAMESWAR refuses to answer questions on the probe into the mysterious death of special CBI judge B.H. Loya for fear of contempt of court, you hide a smile. When did fear take precedence over forthrightness for a man who has famously led an unprecedented press conference of four sitting judges of the Supreme Court in January this year, to throw tough questions at the institution no one dares question, i.e. the Supreme

Court? He justifies his actions with a smile: “I am a commoner now.” After 21 years of wielding the gavel, seven at the Supreme Court, Justice Chelames war, 65, brought it down for good. Seniormost after the Chief Justice of India, he made the quiet internal procedures of the apex court more dramatic than frontline politics in recent years. Chelames war walked offinto retirement on June 22, leaving behind a cloud of unanswered questions. Excerpts from a conversation with Executive Editor DAMAYANTI DATTA just before he left Delhi:

Q: Are you leaving with regret, in anger or with relief?

A: Neither regrets, nor anger. I have finished my duties and I am walking off. That’s all.

Q: You were the lone dissenting judge in the NJAC (National Judicial Appointments Commission) verdict of 2015. Would you have taken the same stand today?

A: Yes, I’d still support the NJAC, on the very same grounds. It is one thing to say the structure is unconstitutional and another to say the way that it’s being operated is wrong. My complaint was only that the system was not being operated properly.

Q: Your time as a Supreme Court justice has been marked by protests against the functioning of the court. Have they made a difference?

A: I wouldn’t call it protest. I raised some institutional questions. And I do believe raising those questions made some difference to the system.

Q: Never before in our history has dissension within the apex court come out so openly in the public domain as during your tenure. How easy or difficult was it to work, especially after the January press conference?

A: I had no difficulty. I never had any private issues with anybody. I raised certain institutional questions. After that, I sat normally in court and decided cases, with the same degree of efficiency or inefficiency with which I functioned earlier. It did not make any difference to me. Taking a stand and then pushing for it is a permissible democratic right, isn’t it? I have done that all through. For instance, I have always believed that judges should not be burdened with legal services, although it’s a law made by Parliament. I did not believe in it and I declined to take part: I recused myself as the seniormost judge of a high court. At the Supreme Court, I refused to take part in it.