CJI Ranjan Gogoi wraps up work in five minutes on last day at Supreme Court

It is learnt that CJI Gogoi who started his tenure by paying his respects at Rajghat will do so again at the end of his tenure.

Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi visits the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi. (Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

NEW DELHI: It was a regular day at the Supreme Court on Friday, but the court of the Chief Justice of India looked different as the present CJI Ranjan Gogoi wrapped up his work in just five minutes and heard the farewells of lawyers who had thronged the court to bid him goodbye.

Though the CJI is only officially retiring on November 17, Friday is his last working day. The day began at 10:30 am. 10 matters listed before his bench, also comprising of CJI-designate S A Bobde, were disposed of swiftly and notices were issued and stay was granted in all of them.

It is also learnt that CJI Gogoi who started his tenure by paying his respects at Rajghat will do so again at the end of his tenure. He is likely to visit Rajghat in the afternoon. 

According to officers privy to the schedule, CJI Gogoi will also have a video conferencing session with high court and trial court judges this evening. This is a first for him.

In a three-page statement issued to the media, he said, "I am keen that you would appreciate that the ordinary freedoms are finely balanced in our institutional functioning - while you have the Bar whose members can exercise their freedom of speech to the extent of even pushing the boundaries of such freedom, the bench requires its judges to maintain silence, while exercising their freedoms. This is not to say that Judges do not speak. They do speak, but only out of functional necessity, and no more. Bitter truth must remain in memory.”

Emphasising the importance of press freedom, the CJI said, "Good press is also a parameter amongst others that is known to be indicative of our institutional health.  In such view, I do wish to put on record that by and large, the press corps has been kind to my office as well as to our institution during my tenure at the helm of the institution. Even during trying times. When our institution was keeping an ambush or two at bay, most members of the press displayed maturity and character ad exercised exceptional discretion to prevent canards and falsehood from clogging the news space."