Best judge is one less known and seen in the media: CJI NV Ramana

Speaking at the virtual launch of Anomalies in Law and Justice, a book authored by Justice Raveendran, CJI Ramana read out a congratulatory letter the former judge had written to him when he was appointed to the high office.

In the letter, Justice Raveendran had said these were “difficult”, “challenging” and “testing” days, that being a CJI required “courage to act”, and that Justice Ramana possessed all the qualities expected of a judge.

“I feel that this message is indeed the road map for my journey as the Chief Justice of India. I shall treasure this message forever,” the CJI said.

He said he had written to Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad to take steps to bridge the digital divide in accessing virtual courts during the pandemic — Prasad also holds the Electronics and Information Technology portfolio.

“A whole generation of lawyers is being pushed out due to this digital divide,” the CJI said.

He acknowledged that the digital divide was impacting access to justice, especially in rural areas, since courts have been functioning virtually ever since the outbreak of the pandemic.

He said he also discussed prioritising vaccination for legal professionals by treating them as frontline workers.

Apart from CJI Ramana, former CJIs MN Venkatachaliah and RC Lahoti, former Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna and senior advocate Arvind P Datar were present as panellists along with Justice Raveendran at the virtual book launch.

All the panellists agreed that increasing the age of retirement of High Court judges would add to ensuring independence of the judiciary by disincentivizing judges from taking post-retirement jobs.