“We don’t take phone calls on Thursday, spend entire weekend in reading, we are not always right, but we Judges too are human being”



By Japan K Pathak,Ahmedabad, 27 November, 2011

Justice C.K.Thakker, senior Judge of the Supreme Court of India on Sunday, interacting candidly with the students at Indian Institute of Management(IIM)in Ahmedabad said that the Judges also are human being, and pendency and delay of cases are partly because of limited number of Judges and too many new cases coming to Supreme Court every week.

“I agree with the question of delay and pendency of cases. In fact Judiciary is not unaware of this burning problem. But I may tell you that Judiciary has also its own limitations. I have worked as lawyer, High Court judge, Chief Justice and also judge of the Supreme Court which is the highest court of county. But I may also say, that we have that is judiciary, We are not defending ourselves, but we have our own limitations also. Say for instance Several persons go to SC also. Now if you are aware at present there are only 31 judges, highest 31 judges. There may be few vacancy, but suppose there’s no vacancy then also 1+30. One Chief Justice of India and 30 other judges now as against that how many cases are registered? I may tell you my experience, every Friday, each and every court has about 60-65 cases for admission and every Monday there are about 80-85 cases. I am not joking, honestly I am saying you that virtually two days judges read Saturday Sunday because 80-85 matters. On Thursday night we even don’t receive telephones because we have to read the papers. Now if in this circumstances it takes time, I am not saying that we are not responsible for delay, but we have also our own limitations. We are also human being.”

Replying to a question related to Judicial review, Justice C.K.Thakker said, “With regard to power of judicial review, ultimately what the SC says is correct. But then it can be said that it is a doctrine of necessity. In fact such a question came before the United States Supreme Court or Supreme Court of America. See what happened that the question before the court was whether judges are liable to pay tax or not. Now obviously who will decide? Judges decided. I say sometime we decide wrongly also. But ultimately somebody will decide. And decision power is not given to parliament, decision power is not given to executive. Decision power is always with the judiciary. So Sometimes even wrong decision, I don’t say all decision are correct, but that is doctrine of necessity, that’s how we discuss.”

As a student of law I may say that there must be certainty and predictability. In fact one of the very major advantages and benefits of written law is that law is certain, law is predictable, you may be able to know what the law is.

“Now if one judge takes one view, another takes another view, it may create some problems, it may create uncertainty, it may create unpredictability it should be avoided.”

“judges are also human being, some are very liberal, some are very strict, some are conservative, some are say literalistic approach. So something is bound to happen. It should not happen, I agree. But at the same time it happens also, that is how our system works.”

Backing Justice Thakker, Professor Anurag Agarwal of IIM Ahmedabad said, “I remember about 10 years back one of the Chief Justices wrote that before being elevated to Supreme Court, what was the normal practice, every evening there would be a tempo load of files which will be coming to his residence, and he is bound to go through everything, because he has to prepare for tomorrow morning in the court. So he said before I was elevated to Supreme Court, I always thought that the bonded labour was abolished in India.”