As he demitted office as the 52nd Chief Justice of India on Sunday, Justice BR Gavai sought to dispel the notion that a judge will not be seen as independent unless he ruled against the government.

Asserting that he never faced any pressure from the Executive, the outgoing CJI said, “As a judge, you do not decide cases based on whether the parties are the government or private individuals. You decide as per the papers (case file) before you. But in some quarters, there is a notion that unless you decide everything against the government, you are not an independent judge. It is not the correct approach.”

Interacting with Supreme Court correspondents at his official residence here on his last day in office, Justice Gavai lamented that in the contemporary jurisprudence, a judge was called ‘

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