Despite Heavy Workload And Pressure to Achieve a Higher Rate of Disposal, Chief Justice Lalit Not Compromised on Quality:AG KK Venugopal
"We are all happy that one among us, who is a member of the Supreme Court bar Association, is holding the highest judicial office in the country. Only a few among us have had the privilege of being directly elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of India. But what is unique about chief Justice Lalit is that he is the second member from the Supreme Court bar who has attained the high office...
"We are all happy that one among us, who is a member of the Supreme Court bar Association, is holding the highest judicial office in the country. Only a few among us have had the privilege of being directly elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of India. But what is unique about chief Justice Lalit is that he is the second member from the Supreme Court bar who has attained the high office of the chief Justice of India the first being Justice S. M. Sikri. We are additionally happy that we are having a Chief Justice of India of unquestionable integrity", AG KK Venugopal said on Thursday.
He was speaking at the felicitation function organized by SCBA in honor of Chief Justice of India UU Lali.
Read some excerpts from his speech.
What is also special about the Chief Justice of India is the atmosphere of calm that prevails in his court. We did not find him raising his voice as a counsel, whatever may be the provocation. If the last two and half weeks of Justice Lalit's tenure have shown us anything it is that he is committed to planting a seed of lasting change and that his tenure offers a great future for this institution. A newspaper yesterday reported that during just 19 days of Justice Lalit taking over as the Chief Justice of India the Supreme Court disposed off over 5000 matters. With chief Justice Lalit at the helm, there is a general sense amongst the members of the bar and the litigant public that the cases will get listed and heard
Walking down the corridors of the Supreme Court, one can hear advocates expressing how pleased they are that cases which had not seen the light of the day for several years are finally being listed. His judgments on the criminal side have significantly reformed the administration of the death penalty and he has sought to introduce a new aspect in deciding as to whether the death penalty has to be inflicted or not by providing for mitigating circumstances being disclosed to the courts at all stages of trial court, at the appellate stage in the High Court and also in the Supreme Court. Which means that a lawyer or a counsellor would go to the house of the accused who is facing a death sentence, would investigate, ask Questions, find out whether there are mitigating circumstances and place it before the Trial Court. The same exercise would be done when the matter goes to the High Court and finally when it comes to the Supreme Court. This shows he is a person with a large heart.
Despite the heavy workload and the pressure to achieve a higher rate of disposal, Justice Lalit has not compromised on quality and has been consistent in extending an extremely patient hearing to each and every counsel before him and making sure that one always leaves his court with the satisfaction of being heard fully.
His tenure will have a lasting impact on this great institution