E-Paper
After CJI’s appeal on leave, Supreme Court judge cancels international visit
Justice Ramana was scheduled to attend the biennial meeting of ‘Commonwealth judicial educators’ in Port of Spain from November 15 to November 19 as a speaker.
Justice NV Ramana, a senior judge in the Supreme Court, has cancelled a scheduled four-day trip to Trinidad and Tobago this November following chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi’s appeal to judges earlier this month to not take leave, even for conferences, during working days.
Justice Ramana was scheduled to attend the biennial meeting of ‘Commonwealth judicial educators’ in Port of Spain from November 15 to November 19 as a speaker. The schedule was fixed more than two months ago. However, on Monday, Justice Ramana decided to cancel his visit, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The judge took the step to honour justice Gogoi’s appeal made in a video conference on October 5, two days after he took over as CJI.
The sixth senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, justice Ramana is in line to become CJI on April 24, 2021.
In his video conference with chief justices of the high courts, justice Gogoi focused on reducing the case backlog and the need to combat corruption in judiciary. He discussed a 10-point plan, which included not taking leave of absence, adhering to duty hours, and not to “hesitate in withdrawing judicial work from judges who are under a cloud”.
CJI Gogoi also said that advocates with good incomes should be elevated as judges to prevent them from being tempted by inducements. Last week, the Supreme Court collegium headed by justice Gogoi rejected the elevation of an advocate as judge of the Kerala high court on the ground that “his average net professional annual income for the preceding five years is less than the prescribed income limit applicable in case of bar members”.
During the conversation, justice Gogoi also stressed the importance of filling vacancies in the lower judiciary so that pending cases do not clog the system. There are 4.3 million cases pending in 42 high courts, according to the National Judicial Data Grid.
