Outgoing CJI rejects popular notion that judges won't be seen as independent unless they rule against govt

Outgoing CJI rejects popular notion that judges won't be seen as independent unless they rule against govt

New Delhi, Outgoing Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday rejected the popular notion that a judge will not be seen as independent unless he/she rules against the government, and called it an “incorrect approach”.

CJI Gavai, who was speaking to journalists at his official residence here on his last day in office, said, “Unless you decide against the government, you are not an independent judge... That is not correct. You do not decide as to whether the litigant is the government or a private citizen. You decide as per the papers before you.”

Calling it an incorrect approach, he said that in contemporary jurisprudence, a judge was called ‘independent’ only if the decision was g