CJI Sanjiv Khanna expresses unhappiness over truth deficit in legal profession
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday expressed his profound unhappiness over the truth deficit currently prevailing in the legal profession.
Speaking during his farewell ceremony organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the outgoing CJI said that a judge was considered a seeker of truth. Mahatma Gandhi believed that truth was God and an ideal to strive for. However in the current times, there was concealment and deliberate mis-statement of facts, which came from a mistaken belief that unless the evidence was padded up, the case would not succeed.
Noting that the mindset was not only wrong, the CJI said it made the job of the court harder.
CJI Khanna said that he performed the duties of a judge for 20 years and practiced as a lawyer for 22 years, adding that he had no mixed feelings about his tenure. He said he felt blessed to retire as the 51st CJI. Becoming a judge of the Delhi High Court was itself a dream come true for him, he added.
The outgoing CJI, however, said that he was eager to get rid of the judge in him.
He said it felt like the beginning of a new life.
CJI Khanna said that his parents lived a life of simplicity and moral uprightness. He revealed that his mother, a professor of Hindi literature at Lady Shri Ram College, never wanted him to become a lawyer. She said simplicity and straight-mindedness would not let him earn as he was never commercial-minded.
The CJI said that his mother would be pleased that his decision was correct.
He concluded by calling the Supreme Court a place where justice found home.