Justice Chelameswar says no to retirement farewell
Supreme Court judge justice Jasti Chelameswar has turned down the court’s bar association’s invitation for a farewell function. The court’s second senior-most judge retires June 22.
Four days ago, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) secretary Vikrant Yadav met the judge and extended the invite but justice Chelameswar declined.
On Monday, SCBA president Vikas Singh met him but couldn’t change the mind of Chelameswar, who was one of the four judges who rose in revolt against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in January.
“He declined the invite for the farewell function,” Singh said.
The Supreme Court Bar Association has a tradition of organisme ing a sendoff of for retiring judges, usually on the last working day.
But for justice Chelameswar, the function was planned for May 18, the last working day of the Supreme Court before it breaks for summer for 45 days. The judge didn’t say why he was giving the tradition a miss. “He (justice Chelameswar) said I have right to keep my reasons reserved and did not to disclose it. I request you not to ask further,” Yadav said.
SCBA had also suggested an “informal farewell” in the bar room, on the lines of the one given to justice Chelameswar by the Gauhati high court bar when he was promoted to the SC.
Typically, farewell functions are held in the Supreme Court lawns and attended by all the judges, including the CJI, who is the chief guest and the outgoing judge the guest of honour.
This is the second time in the 68 years of the Supreme Court that a judge has refused a farewell for him. Justice AP Sen, who retired in September 1988, was the first to decline.
The rift among the country’s top judges came out in public when the four judges held an unprecedented press conference in January, questioning allotment of work by CJI Misra.
NEWDELHI: