CJI in awe of govt’s prompt nod

In 48 hours, Centre elevates four HC chief justices

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said he was “overawed” by the speed with which the government cleared the names of four high court chief justices for elevation to the Supreme Court.

“I am myself overawed as you are,” the CJI said at a media interaction on Friday. He was responding to a question on what had changed after he assumed charge to prompt the government to act swiftly.

“I do not know myself. We had sent the recommendation on Wednesday morning and by evening we were informed that the medical (tests) of the four was done. How it happened? I do not know. You must find it out from the law minister,” CJI Gogoi quipped. He was accompanied by justice SA Bobde who is next in line to become the CJI after Gogoi demits office next year.

The four judges, whose names the Supreme Court Collegium cleared on Monday, took oath on Friday morning. They are justices Hemant Gupta , Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi.

The CJI said the appointment of justice AS Dave as the Gujarat High Court acting chief justice was a “mistake”, which was rectified later. “It was a mistake. Mistakes do happen. The same has been corrected...,” he said, when asked who was the acting chief justice of the HC as two government notifications were issued.

Meanwhile, CJI Gogoi said the apex court was looking at the possibility of translating its judgements from English into regional languages, including Hindi, so that litigants are aware of what transpired in their case.

“This is unacceptable… somebody who lost his property and everything else on the basis of a document cannot read it… They will have to approach a lawyer who will charge fees,” the CJI said. He, however, added that the major problem that the court was facing in this was the acute “shortage of manpower”.

CJI Gogoi, who has been trying to reduce case backlogs, said 14 benches would assemble every Monday and Friday after the Diwali break.