CJI chides bar associations for boycotting Justice Bela Trivedi farewell

NEW DELHI: CJI B R Gavai on Friday disapproved of the decision of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the SC Advocates-on-Record Association to boycott the courtroom farewell for Justice Bela M Trivedi , the tenth woman judge in the 75-year history of the court.

The boycott stemmed from a split decision of an SC bench on punishment to an AoR who had reportedly suppressed material and attempted to mislead the court in a criminal case. While Justice Trivedi had ordered the AoR’s name to be struck off the rolls for a month, her colleague Satish C Sharma had let him off with a warning.


Boycott of judge’s farewell not in good taste, says CJI

During the farewell in the CJI’s courtroom, many advocates, especially women, complimented Justice Bela M Trivedi for a sterling career that exemplified integrity, hard work and protection of institutional dignity.

She had joined Ahmedabad City civil court as an additional district and sessions judge in 1995, when her father, too, was a judge in that court. She became an high court judge in 2011 and was appointed as a judge of Supreme Court in Aug 2021.

CJI B R Gavai said though Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Kapil Sibal was present, the boycott of farewell of a judge by the two associations was not in good taste. “We deprecate such a stand of SCBA and SC Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA).” CJI’s bench partner Justice A G Masih said, “Good traditions must be followed and respected.”

Justice Trivedi, who will retire on June 9, would not be available on the last working day of SC on May 23 prior to the summer break as she has a family wedding in the US. She said it is for the first time that the CJI has broken tradition to invite all her relatives for tea after the ceremonial bench, and dinner.

Attorney general R Venkataramani said Justice Trivedi delivered justice while scrupulously adhering to the law. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said, “Justice Trivedi has never attempted to mould relief to suit popular sentiments, which is a rare thing. This needs courage of conviction, courage to displease people. I lost most of the matters before her, as HC or SC judge, but our respect can never depend on the relief we got or refused.”

SG Mehta said, “There are certain individuals who feel that ‘my word should be the last word in law’ and that never happened in Justice Trivedi’s court, where the last word was the word of law even if it was at the expense of displeasing some people... Our respect and love for the judge is not contingent upon whether relief is being granted or not.”