CJI Gavai miffed over protocol lapse during Maharashtra visit: ‘Question of respect…’
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Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday drew attention to a protocol lapse during his visit to Mumbai for a felicitation programme and said that all three pillars of democracy are equal and must show respect to one another.
Miffed over the absence of Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary, Director General of Police or the city police commissioner to receive him during the visit to his home state — a first after assuming the top post, CJI Gavai said: “If the Chief Secretary of the state, DGP or Mumbai police commissioner does not want to come there, when the CJI, who is from Maharashtra, has arrived for the first time, it’s up to them to think about whether it is right or not,” CJI Gavai said.
Mentioning that he was not insisting on adherence to protocol, he underlined that it is a question of respect by other organs of the institution to the judiciary.
Justice Gavai was sworn in as the CJI on May 14 and was in Mumbai for his felicitation by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. At the event, Gavai said he did not want to point out such small issues, but stated that all three pillars of democracy are equal and must reciprocate acts of respect.
“When a chief of an organ or institution is coming for the first time to the state, especially when he too belongs to the said state, whether the treatment they gave was right or not, they themselves should think,” Gavai said.
“If in my place there was someone else, then the provisions of Article 142 would be considered,” Justice Gavai said on a lighter note.
Article 142 of the Constitution grants Supreme Court the power to pass decrees deemed necessary for doing complete justice in any matter pending before it. It also allows the court to pass orders for securing the attendance of individuals.
— with inputs from PTI