Outgoing CJI Gogoi declines requests for press interviews

Outgoing Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Friday showed his unwillingness to give one-on-one press interview and asserted that his institution does not allow reaching the citizenry through the media.

Chief Justice Gogoi, however, said that media has always been kind to him and his institution and once he is retired, he will talk to it about the "things of mutual interest".

"As a public functionary the idea of courting the press never endeared itself as a choice in the interest of my Institution. It is not the requirement of our Institution, for Judges to reach to our citizenry through the press. The Bench requires its Judges to 'maintain' silence, while exercising their freedoms," he said in an official statement.

I chose to belong to an institution whose strength lay in public confidence and trust earned not through the good press, but through our work as Judges, he added.

"Even during trying times, most members of press displayed maturity and character and exercised exceptional discretion to prevent canards and falsehood from clogging the news space," he said.

Chief Justice added, "To me, those were the time when the stellar role of journalists as defenders of truth and democratic ideals came to the fore.