Justice Hemant Gupta has always been great asset to institution: CJI Lalit

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit on Friday said Supreme Court judge Justice Hemant Gupta, who is set to retire on October 16, has always been a "great asset" to the institution.

The CJI, who was heading the bench which also comprised Justice Gupta, said the latter has always tried to contribute to whatever he was called upon to decide to the best of his ability.

"He is always a great asset to the institution and we wish him all good health, good luck and everything what he deserves and aspires for," Justice Lalit said.

Justice Gupta, who was elevated as an apex court judge on November 2, 2018, said it was a "personally enriching experience" to be in the top court and he always got assistance from all lawyers.

"Personally speaking, I enjoyed my innings of judgeship of about 20 years. Each day was learning experience and all of you have helped me in my learning process. Thank you very much," Justice Gupta told the advocates, who were present in the court to bid him farewell.

The retirement of Justice Gupta will bring down the number of serving judges in the top court to 28 against the sanctioned strength of 34 including the CJI.

During his tenure as a judge of the apex court, Justice Gupta delivered several important judgements, including the verdict in the Karnataka hijab ban matter.

In the split verdict in the hijab matter, Justice Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the March 15 judgement of the Karnataka High Court which had refused to lift the ban.

Praising Justice Gupta's contribution to the judiciary, the CJI said he had met him for the first time almost about 12-13 years back and has known him closely ever since.

"He is a man who has played the innings with a straight bat and has tried to make contribution to whatever he was called upon to decide, called upon to consider, to the best of his ability," he said.

At the outset, the CJI said, "I must say something. Today, in this combination, we are the two senior-most judges in terms of age here in this court."

CJI Lalit is due to retire on November 8.

Justice Gupta said, "Incidentally, my first day in the Supreme Court was in the Chief's court and my last day is also in this court.

Senior advocates, including Mukul Rohatgi and A M Singhvi, wished their best to Justice Gupta on his last working day at the apex court.

"On behalf of the bar, we wish you a very happy and a successful second innings...," Rohatgi said.

Born on October 17, 1957, Justice Gupta was enrolled as an advocate in July 1980. He also worked as additional advocate general of Punjab from 1997 to 1999.

He was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2002.

Justice Gupta was a member of the Computer Committee of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for more than 10 years and this period saw complete computerisation of the high court including digitisation of the entire records of judicial files.

He took over as a judge of the Patna High Court on February 8, 2016 and was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of that high court on October 29, 2016.

Justice Gupta was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on March 18, 2017.

During his tenure as a judge in the apex court, he was part of a five-judge constitution bench which, in a significant judgement, refused to refer to a larger bench the issue of revisiting its 29-year-old Mandal verdict putting the cap on quotas at 50 per cent, as it quashed a Maharashtra law granting reservations to Marathas in admissions and government jobs, saying it violated the principle of right to equality.

Justice Gupta was also a part of the bench which said insulting remarks made to a person belonging to Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes within the four walls of a house with no witnesses does not amount to offence, as it quashed the charges under the SC/ST Act against a man who had allegedly abused a woman within her building.