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Indeed, it makes one happy but?
THE NEWS about the award of Padma Vibhushan to former CJI VN Khare naturally generated waves of joy among the members of the Bench and the Bar of the Allahabad High Court where he spent nearly 25 years, dedicated to the legal and judicial profession.
THE NEWS about the award of Padma Vibhushan to former CJI VN Khare naturally generated waves of joy among the members of the Bench and the Bar of the Allahabad High Court where he spent nearly 25 years, dedicated to the legal and judicial profession.
Hindustan Times spoke to several former judges and lawyers who seemed overwhelmed with delight. Though, there was also a comment that raises a serious and debatable question.
“He fully deserved it,” remarked former Judge RB Mehrotra. “In his tenure as CJI, he set a commendable judicial pace, that is happily visible even now, for restoring people’s declining faith in democratic institutions and independence of judiciary—something that was more than manifested by his landmark judgement for the retrial of the accused in Gujarat carnage,” he recalled.
“Besides, he was the first Chief Justice of India who won accolades from MPs, cutting across party lines, for his utmost judicial integrity and simplicity during a lengthy parliamentary debate that took place when he had been still the Chief Justice of India, and, notably, not a single dissenting voice was heard during the entire debate,” he remarked, “Khare,” observed RL Gulati, another former judge, “is a rare person, one who proved truly worthy of taking up his assignments with exceptional sincerity and integrity, and that explained his utmost popularity throughout among the Bar and the Bench both.”
“It is, indeed, a matter of great pride for the Bar at Allahabad, and probably the Bar Associations and the UP Bar Council here would do well to respond by celebrating this great moment by organising a grand felicitation function in his
honour,” said NC Rajvanshi, former president of the High Court Bar Association and member of the UP Bar Council.
“It is heartening that the honour has come to one in the judiciary who stood too tall in the judicial arena for his principles, rooted in his integrity, and, at the top of it all, he excelled as the ‘pater familias’ of the higher judiciary,” said senior advocate, Ravi Kiran Jain.
“He will be remembered as the first CJI who saw to it that Delhi High Court Judge S Mukherjee, resigned after he stood exposed in a serious corruption case,” said lawyer and former government counsel, Kripa Shankar Singh, while expressing his joy over the award of Padma Vibhushan to him.
The last words, however, came from former Allahabad High Court Judge, OP Garg. “Indeed, I am very happy, but, at the same time, a question haunts my mind. If I am not wrong, Khare is the first judge chosen for conferment of an honour which is commonly perceived to be guided by a ‘politically influenced choice-system’, and the million-dollar question is if awarding such honour to judges would not indirectly serve as future political allurement to serving judges,, thereby indirectly impinging on the independence of the judiciary? And should judges, who are for the independence of judiciary, really accept such politically laced honour?” Garg asked. Some food for thought.
