An ambitious judge “is more dangerous” than a bribe-taking judge, said Supreme Court judge Justice Jamshed Pardiwala in Ahmedabad Saturday recounting a former colleague’s remark. He added the lesson is something he has embedded within himself. The former Gujarat High Court judge added that in his new assignment as an SC judge, it will be his “endeavour” to try his best to fulfil his constitutional oath. Justice Pardiwala, who was elevated to the apex court in May and is expected to have tenure until 2030, was speaking at the felicitation-cum-farewell of recently elevated SC judges from the Gujarat High Court-Justices Vikram Nath, Bela Trivedi and Jamshed Pardiwala-organised by the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association (GHAA). Emphasising the importance of the institution of justice and it being larger than any individual, Justice Pardiwala elaborated on the two major roles of a judge "in a vibrant democracy such as India". The first role is to “uphold the Constitution and the rule of law,” and the second is “to bridge the gap between the law and the society.” “Your ideologies may differ, but when it comes to protecting the honour and dignity of this institution, always stand united and tall. Never allow any person to point a finger at this institution, never allow anyone to speak foul about this institution. Why I’m saying so is, in the words of a very eminent jurist, "the power of judiciary lies not in deciding cases, not in imposing sentences, not in punishing for contempt, but in the trust, confidence and faith of the common man." This trust and confidence must not be shaken,” Justice Pardiwala said. Reminiscing his time on the bench with former Gujarat Chief Justice (now retd) Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Justice Pardiwala recounted a time when the latter when asked about his age (45 years then), commented spontaneously on Justice Pardiwala’s remaining 17 years of tenure saying "an ambitious judge is more dangerous than a bribe-taking judge." Justice Pardiwala was taken aback at the remarks and later mustered the courage to ask Justice Bhattacharya what he wanted to convey. He said, "Brother, when I became a judge in 1997, I had a tenure of more than 16 years. On the morning of my oath, my father who was also a judge of the Calcutta HC but of service cadre came to wish me and said, "Bhaskar da, don’t start thinking from day one when you will become the chief justice of any high court or when will you go to the SC because an ambitious judge is a more dangerous judge than a bribe-taking judge. Ambition can lead a judge to do anything. Therefore, what my father has conveyed to me, I’m conveying it to you." These words got embedded in my mind, they are still embedded, they will die with me,” said Justice Pardiwala. Justice Bela Trivedi, the first woman judge of Gujarat HC to be elevated to SC, remembered senior advocate Vasuben Shah under whom she trained as a lawyer. Shah, who passed away last month, was the first woman designated senior advocate at Gujarat HC. Felicitating the three judges on their elevation to SC, Asim Pandya, president of GHAA, added, “As Supreme Court judges, it is expected that the values of democracy are protected and that they take special care to ensure that citizens’ rights, as enshrined in the Constitution, are not encroached upon by the executive or Parliament.” Meanwhile, in his welcome speech for Justice Vikram Nath, Pandya reminisced of his role during the Covid pandemic, when he presided over the petitions related to the pandemic. He also noted that Justice Nath had, as the Chief Justice of the HC, delivered some “interesting judgements” one of which was the litigations challenging the alcohol prohibition law in Gujarat. “If you ask every house, there will be at least two alcohol bottles-either with a permit or not. So when the petition was before him, he gave a patient hearing and when Kamal Trivedi (as advocate general of Gujarat) had taken a preliminary objection saying the law had already been decided on, the interim objection was rejected (by Justice Nath),” said Pandya, attracting guffaws of laughter from all judges and audience members. The Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, remains under challenge before the HC more than seven decades after it came into effect as the Bombay Prohibition Act. The court in August 2021 had held the petitions to be maintainable. Meanwhile, Justice Vikram Nath, who was the Chief Justice of Gujarat HC from 2019 until his elevation as SC judge in August 2021, remarked on the “complicated cooperative laws” in the state that he had to encounter as an HC judge, adjudging equally “complicated litigations” on the law.
