New Delhi: Outgoing Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that his tenure marks the end of his constitutional assignment but his constitutional duty will end with his last breath. CJI Ramana, whose tenure as the Chief Justice of India ended after reaching the age of superannuation, was speaking at his farewell event on Friday.
“The need of the hour is the Indianisation of our legal system. When I say Indianisation, I mean the need to adapt to the practical realities of our society and localise our justice delivery system,” the outgoing Chief Justice said.
“The popular perception was that the judiciary is quite distant from the general public, there are still millions of suppressed people who need judicial help and and are apprehensive to approach it in times of need,” CJI Ramana said, adding, “In spite of fulfilling its constitutional mandate, the judiciary does not find adequate reflection in the media thereby depriving people of knowledge about the constitution.”
He further said, “It was my constitutional duty to dispel these notions and bring the constitution closer to the people by way of generating awareness and building confidence around the judiciary.”
Speaking about the beginning of his career, he said, “Being first generation lawyer, I realised without hardwork there is no other road to success. I always accepted rejection as God's direction and retained my honesty… It has been an honour of my life to be elevated as a judge. Once I became a judge, I gave my heart and mind to it. I reached the highest level of judiciary. We suffered conspiracy like scrutiny and my family and I suffered in silence. Ultimately truth will prevail.”
“I never claimed myself to be a scholarly judge but always believed ultimate goal of a judge is to deliver justice,” he said, adding, “I may be remembered who heard senior and junior alike. I want my name to etched on hearts with conduct and not with case laws and journals.”
The outgoing CJI concluded his speech extending greetings to CJI-designate Justice UU Lalit and said, “I urge you (the bar) all to think about nation and people. I am confident that the tenure of Justice Lalit will be a grand success. He has already proven his leadership while he was chairperson was NALSA. Please cooperate with Justice Lalit.”