Justice S K Kaul
Credit: Supreme Court of India official website
New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Friday said boldness of a judge is a very important factor as he stressed that people must have tolerance for each other’s opinion at a time when the tolerance level has gone down internationally.
Justice Kaul is to superannuate on December 25, after a tenure of over six years and 10 months as a judge of the top court.
On his last working day, he sat in a ceremonial bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.
Attorney General R Venkatramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and other senior counsel Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi, A M Singhvi, SCBA president Adish C Aggarwala heaped praise on Justice Kaul, on his conduct of court and service to the law and the Constitution, particularly his suggestion for setting up a truth and reconciliation commission in Article 370 judgment.
In his remarks, Justice Kaul said boldness of a judge was a very important factor and the Bar owes a duty to see that independence of judiciary was protected.
Recalling his association with justice Kaul, CJI said it goes back to the mid 1970s.
"We were college students together and I think it is a matter of great honour for me that we share this very dais together with each other, whether it was in Puttaswamy (right to privacy case), whether it was in the marriage equality case, recently in the Article 370 case…,” the CJI said.
The CJI said his friendship with Justice Kaul was a source of “enormous strength” for him.
Justice Kaul said the apex court has administered justice without fear or favour and he feels the institution, a temple of justice, must remain open and “it is my belief that boldness of a judge is a very important factor”.
Justice Kaul said he is going out as a “satisfied man.”
"I go with a full sense of satisfaction. I have tried to do my best whatever I could, sometimes it may be the best, sometimes it may not be. But the whole society works in a system where people must have tolerance for each other’s opinion,” he said.
Justice Kaul said, “We are at a time in the world, where the tolerance levels have gone very low, internationally…..It is time the human species learns to live with each other and live with other species of this world.”
The apex court will be on Winter break from December 18 and will re-open on January 2, 2024.
Justice Kaul was part of a five-judge constitution bench which had unanimously upheld the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He was also part of a nine-judge constitution bench which had held that the right to privacy was a fundamental right.
A five-judge constitution bench led by Justice Kaul had dismissed the Centre’s curative plea seeking an additional Rs 7,844 crore from the Union Carbide Corporation’s successor firms to extend higher compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
Justice Kaul was born on December 26, 1958. He obtained his LL B degree from the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, in 1982 and enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi on July 15, 1982.
In December 1999, he was designated as a senior advocate. In May 2001, Justice Kaul was elevated as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court and he was appointed as a permanent judge on May 2, 2003.
He was elevated as the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court with effect from June 1, 2013. He also served as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on February 17, 2017.