SC ex- judge slams holiday obsession

SC judge has row with CJI over meeting during Easter AGE CORRESPONDENT with agency inputs A three- day judges’ conference to deliberate on problems in the judiciary began on a sour note Friday as a Supreme Court judge clashed with the Chief Justice of India over holding it on a major Christian holy day.

In a letter, Justice Kurian Joseph objected to holding of the conference of 24 high court chief justices from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. “I may with deep anguish bring to your kind notice that such an important conference should not have been held when some of us, otherwise expected to be part of the event, or otherwise committed on account of the holy days when we have religious ceremonies and family gettogethers as well,” he said in a letter to Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu.

Justice Joseph said such programmes were not held on Diwali, Dussehra, Holi, Id- ul- Fitr, etc, while maintaining he was not striking a communal note. Justice Dattu hit back, saying the question the judge should ask himself, as he cannot ask the judge, is “whether it is institutional interest or individual interest that one should preference to”.

The CJI responded saying if religious ceremonies and family get- togethers were important, he could ask his family to join him in Delhi. “Several other participants are coming from distant places, leaving behind families,” he said.

Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu got support from a former apex court judge Justice K. T. Thomas asking why Christians cannot work on Good Friday. “In the US, where 98 per cent are Christians, Good Friday is a working day. Christians can attend church service and go to work. But in India, we are obsessed with holiday culture. I am totally opposed to this holiday mania that we suffer from,” Justice Thomas said.

Earlier, the issue of holding conference on “Good Friday” was raised by lawyer Lily Thomas in the apex court on the ground that the day is “pious” for Christians universally and the CJI should re- think over it.

But rejecting the plea, a bench headed by the CJI said, “In 2007, we had the judges’ conference on the day of ‘ Good Friday’ and in 2009 it was held on the Independence Day, which is a national holiday. In 2004, it was held on Valmiki Day.

“The purpose of holding this conference is that the work in high courts across the country is not affected as 24 Chief Justices would be attending this conference. Keeping this in mind, the judges took this decision,” the bench said.

The CJs’ conference and a subsequent meeting of CJs with state chief ministers would deal with issues like judicial reforms.

With 2.64 crore undecided cases in the subordinate courts and 42 lakh cases in the high courts, expeditious disposal of cases is the key issue to be discussed.