Judicial activism must not become 'judicial terrorism', says CJI Gavai

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai emphasised that judicial review should be used sparingly, reserved only for the most exceptional cases

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai on Tuesday said that while judicial activism remains a necessary instrument within Indian democracy, it must be exercised with restraint and not be allowed to turn into “judicial terrorism”.

 

Speaking at the Oxford Union, CJI Gavai underlined the judiciary’s constitutional duty to intervene when the legislature or executive fails to protect citizens’ rights. However, he warned against overreach.

 

“Judicial activism is bound to stay. At the same time, judicial activism should not be turned into judicial terrorism. So, at times, you try to exceed the limits and try to enter into an area where, normally, the judiciary should not enter,” he said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

 

 

He emphasised that judicial review should be used sparingly, reserved only for the most exceptional cases. “That power [judicial review] has to be exercised in a very limited area in very exception cases, like, say, a statute is violative of the basic structure of the Constitution, or it is in direct conflict with any of the fundamental rights of the Constitution, or if the statute is so patently arbitrary, discriminatory... the courts can exercise it, and the courts have done so,” he said.

 

Constitution is a quiet revolution etched in ink: CJI Gavai

 

Speaking on the theme 'From Representation to Realisation: Embodying the Constitution's Promise', Justice Gavai said, "Many decades ago, millions of citizens of India were called 'untouchables'. They were told they were impure. They were told that they did not belong. They were told that they could not speak for themselves. But here we are today, where a person belonging to those very people is speaking openly, as the holder of the highest office in the judiciary of the country."

 

Gavai is the first Buddhist and only the second Dalit to serve as Chief Justice of India.

 

“The Constitution of India carries within it the heartbeat of those who were never meant to be heard, and the vision of a country where equality is not just promised, but pursued. It compels the State not only to protect rights, but also to actively uplift, to affirm, to repair," he added

 

He further credited BR Ambedkar for envisioning a system where democracy extends beyond institutional checks and balances to include the redistribution of power among social groups.

 

"At the Oxford Union today, I stand before you to say (that) for India's most vulnerable citizens, the Constitution is not merely a legal charter or a political framework, it is a feeling, a lifeline, a quiet revolution etched in ink. In my own journey, from a municipal school to the office of the Chief Justice of India, it has been a guiding force," he said.

 

Concluding his speech, Justice Gavai quoted postcolonial theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: “Yes, the subaltern can speak—and they have been speaking all along. The question is no longer whether they can speak, but whether society is truly listening.”

 

(With inputs from Bar and Bench, and PTI.)