CJI BR Gavai clarified that the Supreme Court cannot dictate High Court collegiums, stressing both are equal constitutional courts. He urged lawyers and judges to treat every case, no matter how small, as vital to justice and democracy.
New Delhi: On August 15, Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to mark the 79th Independence Day, said that the Supreme Court collegium cannot force or dictate a High Court collegium to recommend a specific person’s name for appointment as a judge.
He stressed that both the Supreme Court and the High Court are constitutional courts, and one is not superior to the other.
He explained that the process of appointing judges begins with the High Court collegium, which has the “first call” in the matter. According to him, the Supreme Court can only suggest names and request the High Court collegium to consider them.
He said,
“Ultimately, even the Supreme Court Collegium can’t dictate the high court collegium to recommend the names… the Supreme Court is not a superior court to the high court. Both the Supreme Court and the high court are constitutional court, and so far as the constitutional scheme is concerned, they are neither inferior nor superior to each other,”
CJI Gavai added,
“We only recommend the names to the high court collegium and request them to consider the names, and only after their satisfaction that the candidates deserve the designation, the names come to the Supreme Court.”
He also spoke about a practice introduced during the tenure of former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, where the Supreme Court collegium interacts directly with candidates for judgeship. This, he said, had proved very useful.
The CJI noted,
“After interacting with the candidates for 10 minutes, 15 minutes or half an hour, the apex court collegium can find out as to how suitable they would be to contribute to society,”
During his address, CJI Gavai paid tribute to India’s freedom fighters, remembering events like the Santhal (Hul) rebellion of 1855 in Jharkhand and the contributions of social reformers such as Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule in Maharashtra.
He also recalled the inspiring words of Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He emphasised that India’s freedom struggle was not only a political movement but also a moral and legal effort, with many lawyers playing an important role.
He urged today’s lawyers to carry forward that tradition.
He said,
“As legal professionals, you must recognise that no cause is too small to merit your attention. What may appear to be a minor dispute or a trivial grievance to one, may in fact be a matter of life, dignity or survival for others. Every case you handle, every argument you advance, contributes to the moral and social fabric of our nation,”
Speaking on the responsibilities of judges, he stated that their work must go beyond the literal words of the law.
The CJI declared,
“We must interpret the law in ways that expand freedom, protect the rights of the marginalised, and strengthen the rule of law. Only then will Tagore’s prayer be answered, only then will Mahatma Gandhi’s Swaraj be real, and only then will Dr Ambedkar’s idea of democracy be complete,”
He pointed out that the struggle for independence was a collective effort involving people from different regions and communities.
He said,
“The freedom was not forged in one place nor by one people, but by the courage of many speaking in different tongue. From the hills of today’s Jharkhand, where the Santhals led the first plains of rebellion, to the forest of Chota Nagpur, where Birsa Munda dreamt of dignity for his people, from the school in Pune, where Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule opened the doors of learning to the excluded, to the renunciation of a knighthood by Rabindranath Tagore in protest against injustice; From the careful counting of our constitution by Dr BR Ambedkar and his colleagues to the moral campus of Mahatma Gandhi… Our freedom was not forged in one place nor by one people, but by the courage of many speaking in different tongues, yet united by one dream of a prosperous and equal India,”
Referring to the progress India has made, he said it is symbolic that the Santhal community, which was one of the first to rise against British rule in 1855, now has its daughter, Droupadi Murmu, as the President of India.
He said,
“It is the destiny of India that the Santhal community, which was amongst the first to rise against the British in 1855, now has its daughter, President Droupadi Murmu, holding the highest constitution office in the land,”
He called her journey from a small village in Odisha to the Rashtrapati Bhavan a “testament to how far the country has travelled” but reminded that the work of building a just, equal and inclusive India is still incomplete.
CJI Gavai ended his address with a strong pledge for the future of the nation.
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He said,
“Let us pledge that the India we pass on will be one where no child is denied education because of his or her caste or out of poverty, no woman walks in fear by day or by night, and no citizen is too small to be heard; No truth is too inconvenient to be spoken, although it is our solemn duty as judges and lawyers not merely to interpret and apply the law, but to actively uphold and embody the fundamental values enshrined in the Constitution we are entrusted with the responsibility to promote, protect, imbibe and defend the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, the very principles that form the bedrock of our democratic society,”
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and several judges of the Supreme Court were also present during the event, along with SCBA president Vikas Singh, who urged the Supreme Court collegium to also consider lawyers practising in the apex court for judgeship in High Courts, even if they had not practised there before.
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