Judges must exercise restraint while pronouncing verdict: Ex-CJI B R Gavai

Gavai said that social media became a “menace” when judges said a few words, which were blown out of proportion and given a totally different context.“So the best thing is to abide by the advice given by one of our learned colleagues, to speak less. And in any case, the judges are supposed to speak through their judgments,” he said.Answering a question about the significance of directive principles of the Constitution, the ex-CJI said that last year marked 75 years of the Kesavananda Bharati case, which laid down the “basic structure doctrine.”“I have been saying at many places that though the initial journey of the Supreme Court may not be conducive with the importance of the directive principles of the Constitution, in the Kesavananda Bharati case, you might notice that though the Supreme Court was equally divided on the amending cause of the Constitution, but in so far as the importance of Directive Principles is concerned, almost all the judges were on the same page,” ex-CJI Gavai said.He said that the earlier view that whenever there is a conflict between the fundamental rights and directive principles, the directive principle should give way to the fundamental rights was later changed by the apex court, which held that the directive principles and the fundamental rights, together, are the soul and conscience of the Constitution.Regarding the question of the supremacy of one organ of the state and whether the judiciary had weakened in the last decade, ex-CJI Gavai said, “Sometime back, there was a statement by the then constitutional functionary that the judiciary is not Supreme, but it is the parliament which is supreme.”“And on various forums, I had an occasion to speak, and I said that neither the parliament nor the judiciary is supreme. What is supreme is the Constitution of India, and all the three bodies, the legislature is the parliament and the executive and the judiciary, work under the areas which are earmarked for them by the Constitution.”



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