Judges should act, not make promises, says CJI BR Gavai at felicitation ceremony

The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Saturday, May 17, honoured the new Chief Justice of India(CJI), Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, at a grand ceremony held at The Lalit, New Delhi.

The event was attended by Supreme Court and High Court judges, senior advocates, bar leaders, and prominent legal figures from across the country.

Addressing the judiciary’s pressing challenge of case backlogs, CJI Gavai called for a cooperative effort between the judiciary and the executive to swiftly fill vacancies. He said, “I would request the learned Solicitor to convey our request to the executive that, by a cooperative rule cooperative approach, we must ensure to minimize the vacancies as much as, as strictly as we can so that to some extent the issue of pendency would be resolved,” as reported by LiveLaw.

CJI Gavai revealed his shyness regarding media interviews. He believes judges should stay engaged with society to understand its issues better and opposes the notion of judicial isolation. He shared, “I am somewhat shy not otherwise because I like to mix in people I like to meet people sometimes I am also told by some that as a Supreme Court judge who is in a line to become a CJI, it’s not good to mix so much in people but I don’t believe in that theory of isolation unless you know who is in the society, you will not be aware about the problems, of the society, and today’s judge he can’t decide the matters only in black and white ignoring, the ground reality in the society.”

“I don’t give any interviews, because I cannot make any promises I don’t believe in making promises initially and then at the end the friends from the press themselves, criticizing that in his interview he has made so much promises so much promises but he doesn’t so they will pardon me for that,” he further added.