Outgoing CJI Gogoi declines requests for interviews, lauds media for maturity in trying times of SC

Outgoing Chief Justice India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Friday expressed his inability to have one-to-one interview with scribes and lauded the press for its "maturity" and "character" in preventing "canards and falsehood" in "trying times" of the judiciary.

Justice Gogoi, the 46th CJI and the first from a north-eastern state, said it was not the requirement of the Supreme Court that judges "reach out to our citizenry through the press".

"Such outreach (to the press) ought to be symbolic of an extraordinary situation demanding an exception to the norm," said Justice Gogoi who would demit office on November 17, a Sunday.

Justice Gogoi and three other senior most apex court judges -- Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph had held an unprecedented press conference on January 12, 2018 alleging that the administration and allocation of cases in the apex court, then headed by the then CJI Dipak Misra, was "not in order".

In a three-page common letter to journalists, the CJI declined the request for interviews and said: "I would not be able to meet your request for a one-to-one meet."
"This is not to say that Judges do not speak. They do speak, but only out of functional necessity, and no more. Bitter truth must remain in memory."