At the end of his 40-year career, outgoing Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said he joined the bar in 1985 as a “student of law”, and now retires as a “student of justice”. CJI BR Gavai today bid farewell to the court on his last working day before he retires on Sunday, November 23.
Before the customary ceremonial bench—the special bench comprising the outgoing chief, CJI-designate Surya Kant and Justice K Vinod Chandran—the bar spoke about Justice Gavai’s accessibility to one and all, humbleness, his “extra ear” for junior members of the bar and a sense of humour.
Senior members of the bar remember CJI Gavai as a fair, balanced judge with an acute sense of empathy and justice. “The judgments may be right for some, and wrong for another, but the judgments that he decided upon were fair,” senior advocate Amit Anand Tiwari said.
If one analyses CJI Gavai’s orders, one can see that he mainly took decisions on matters that directly affected the people, and on decisions concerning the institution and its independence.
CJI Gavai’s last day in court was customary with lawyers’ expressing their thanks with brevity, non-repetition and a sense of humour. When advocate Jaya Sukin expressed his intent to “shower” (read throw) flower petals at CJI Gavai in court, the judge humorously said, “No no, don’t throw, hand it over to someone,” eliciting laughter from the court and a veiled reminder of the time when an advocate attempted to throw a shoe at the judge in court.
In his farewell address, CJI Gavai said he believed that saw all offices—as a lawyer and as a judge—not as one of power, but as an opportunity to serve society. CJI Gavai spoke about how he was influenced by BR Ambedkar and his father – RS Gavai, on all aspects of his life – especially his career, as he thanked his staff, the registry and acknowledged his family’s sacrifice as he rose for the last time with his customary “thank you, thank you,” to signify the end of proceedings.
CJI Gavai’s journey from a municipal school to the highest office in court
Justice Bhushan R. Gavai hails from Maharashtra’s Amravati district, where his father RS Gavai was a prominent Ambedkarite and founder of the Republican Party of India. CJI Gavai completed his schooling from a local municipal school in his village and pursued his law degrees from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law, Nagpur University.
CJI Ambedkar joined the bar in 1985 and primarily practiced at the Nagpur bench before being appointed as a judge. In 1992, CJI Gavai was appointed as the Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor before rising to the position of a Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor in 2000.
In November 2003, CJI Gavai was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court and became permanent in November 2005. CJI Gavai was a judge at the Bombay High Court for 16 years and spent time on all the benches – the Principal Seat at Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji (Goa Bench).
CJI Gavai was elevated to the Supreme Court in May 2019 – bypassing many senior to him on account of then-collegium’s reasoning for the need of “due representation” of the SC/ST community.
CJI Gavai, as a Dalit and practicing Buddhist, has the distinction of being one of the few judges from the severely underrepresented class and the second dalit CJI after Justice KG Balakrishnan who retired in 2010.
During his career he was part of at least 707 benches and authored at least 367 judgments. According to the top court website, the collegium approved 129 candidates for elevation to the high courts and top court, of which the Centre approved 93 (OBC/BC-11; SC-10; Minority-13; Women-15; Related to judges-05). These also include referrals from collegiums led by previous CJIs.
In the last week of his career, CJI Gavai said his one regret was that he could not appoint any women judges in the top court while speaking before women lawyers.
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CJI Gavai’s judgments balanced and rooted in “Indianness”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said CJI Gavai’s judgments were rooted in “Indianness” for they relied on interpretations of Indian judicial precedents and did not refer to any international rulings.
CJI Gavai’s verdicts on the environment are particularly notable like his decisions that saved Uttarakhand from forest fires, reversed the post-facto nod for environment clearences by the government, animal rights, stopping the felling of trees in Telangana’s Gadchibowli area. However, CJI Gavai will also be remembered for his verdict permitting green crackers that reversed years of judicial attempts at managing air pollution in the national capital and the stay on policies regarding end-of-life vehicles.
During his six-year career at the Supreme Court, CJI Gavai contributed to several landmark rulings. CJI Gavai was part of constitution benches on issues like abrogation of Article 370, scrapping of the electoral bonds scheme, and also wrote the majority opinion in the verdict upholding the Centre’s demonetization scheme.
CJI Gavai’s verdict banning bulldozing of properties owned by accused is noteworthy, though, as a senior member of the bar noted it stopped short of giving it teeth for effective implementation. The top judge also followed the adage “bail is the rule, jail the exception” in politically sensitive cases like Delhi’s ex-deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and activist Teesta Setalvad.
In his concurring opinion in a verdict on reservations, CJI Gavai supported sub-classification within the Scheduled Caste community as he analysed that social realities necessitated the quota system as he relied on his knowledge of history, politics and the ‘depressed classes’ and ‘Scheduled Castes.
CJI Gavai mooted the idea of the exclusion of a ‘creamy layer’ across all fields including the judiciary.