"When I became a judge, one of the judges told me: ‘Remember that in India, litigant comes to the court as a last resort, after he has been through the various processes and he finds that there are no solutions. If he owes 50, give him 55, not 45 because with great difficulty he comes to this court’.
"That’s something I have kept dear to my heart. I do not believe that we are the fund collectors for the government. Stakes are not important, what is important is what the principle of law it carries. And this court has administered justice as expected without fear or favour.” -- Justice Kaul
On his last working day, on Dec 15, 2023, as an apex court judge, 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. During his tenure as an apex court judge, Justice Kaul was part of several landmark verdicts, including the one by a nine-judge constitution bench which had held that right to privacy was a fundamental right. Underlining the need for judges to be bold, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that if they with their constitutional protection are not able to be so, they cannot expect other parts of the administration to do so.
“It is my belief that boldness of the judge is a very important factor. If, with the constitutional protection which we have, we are not able to exhibit this, we cannot expect other parts of the administration to do so,” Justice Kaul said, sharing the ceremonial bench with Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
As per practice, a Supreme Court judge who is due for retirement shares the bench with the CJI on his or her last working day. Justice Kaul is set to retire on December 25 and Friday is his last working day as the court will be on Christmas and New Year holidays.
Justice Kaul, who had handled the issue of the lawyers strike disrupting court work in Odisha, said the court is “an institution and temple of justice. It must remain open. That’s something very close to my heart”. He said “fortunately the Supreme Court does not carry that problem”.
“As a lawyer, I felt that wherever somewhat an adjournment culture is prevalent, it’s a problem. I always believe that the case must be taken up on the day it is listed.”
“The whole society works on a system where people must have tolerance for each other’s opinion. I think that’s the greatest message I would like to give. 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 to be able to adjust to it, so that the world remains a large place, doesn’t become a small place,” he said.
“The Bar and Bench work together. Therefore, the Bar owes the duty to see that the independence of the judiciary, the independence in the various forms in the country are protected and they stand up for it.
Ultimately, there’s no method by which the judiciary can stand up for itself and I think it’s the duty of the Bar to support, sometimes correct the judiciary,” he said.
He said he is going out a satisfied man. “I go out with a full sense of satisfaction. I have tried to do my best of whatever I could. Sometimes it may be the best, sometimes it may not be.”
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| Justice Kaul was also part of Bench that gave its verdict on Art 370 |
Attorney General R Venkataramani said -- “Justice Kaul’s expression” in the Article 370 judgement “that there should be a truth and reconciliation commission, I think it marks a watershed in the way the court can articulate a profound thought about the healing touch which is required”.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, a native of Srinagar, was born on December 26, 1958. He enrolled as an advocate in 1982, focusing primarily on the Commercial, Civil, Writ, Original, and Company jurisdictions of the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.
He was appointed as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court on May 3, 2001, and subsequently became a permanent judge in 2003. Thereafter, he assumed the role of acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in September 2012. In June 2013, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Following this, on July 26, 2014, he assumed the mantle of Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
On February 17, 2017, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of India.
Justice Kaul in his concurring but separate judgment upholding the abrogation of Article 370 had recommended the setting up of a commission to investigate and report on the violation of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir since the 1980s.
"In view of the in-roads made globally, and endogenous requests for truth and reconciliation, I recommend the setting up of an impartial truth and reconciliation commission (“Commission”). The Commission will investigate and report on the violation of human rights both by State and non-State actors perpetrated in Jammu & Kashmir at least since the 1980s and recommend measures for reconciliation", he has said.
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