00:00This is a moment for expression of gratitude for all the love and affection that all of you have showered upon me in the last 41 years.
00:12So I must be grateful to this destiny, grateful to my parents and grateful to the constitution of India which has made this impossible thing possible.
00:30And this journey of more than 40 years, I have always been guided by the constitution, even as a lawyer.
00:45The virtues of equality, justice, liberty and fraternity were always close to my heart.
00:51As I said in the morning, I am an ardent student of the constitution and have read the constitutional debates in somewhat detail.
01:09And I was always inspired by the speeches made by Dr. Ambedkar, the first one on 4th of December 1948, in which he explains the principles of the constitution and the next one on 25th of November 1949,
01:27wherein he replies to all the amendments which were moved and opposed and passed in the constitution.
01:36And therefore the warning that he had given in his speech on 25th of November 1949,
01:40that unless we remove the social and economic inequalities and take a step forward to march towards achieving social and economic justice along with political justice,
02:00the edifice of democracy which we had so liberally built would fall like a house of cards.
02:07And therefore, in my journey as a lawyer and thereafter as a judge, I always tried to stand by these principles.
02:17As a judge, when I took oath on 14th of November 2003, as a judge of the High Court,
02:28in my journey as a judge, I have always attempted to be true to my oath as given under the constitution.
02:39I am happy that my journey of last 40 years has been very satisfactory, as I said in the morning.
02:50I am fully content, fully satisfied.
02:53The subjects of social and economic justice and environment were always close to my heart, even when I was a lawyer.
03:00As a junior lawyer, I used to represent the BNHS Bombay Natural History Society and you could get many orders from the Supreme Court,
03:13from the High Court for protection of the Pinch Tiger Reserve or the Tadoba Tiger Reserve.
03:20And I am happy to share that the matter with regard to resettlement of the first village in Tadoba Tiger Reserve,
03:30I had an occasion to deal with it as a government leader.
03:34And as a coincidence, the last of such villages was resettled when I was in the Supreme Court under my orders as a Supreme Court judge.
03:42I could not have completed my journey successfully without the contribution of all my colleagues, the past and the present.
03:59The senior colleagues gave me opportunities to learn the law, to write the judgments.
04:09As a matter of fact, when I came here or anybody who comes from High Court,
04:16various subjects are new, electricity, IBC, even arbitration, we have a limited scope in the High Courts.
04:24I was said in the morning, two of my colleagues have been teachers in two different capacities.
04:29Earlier as the members of the bar and later on as the colleagues on the bench.
04:40I always believed that sitting with colleagues is a process of mutual learning.
04:48We learn from each other and it's that system from learning from each other which fosters the delivery that we do for effecting justice.
05:05In the short period of six months, I could preside over three constitution benches.
05:16Insofar as the first one is concerned, I had developed a practice of immediately after the hearings were over, we would all sit together and discuss.
05:31So insofar as the first page is concerned, we were all on the same page and it was decided that we will commonly take such and such view.
05:44One thing I have in my mind is that the Tribals in my own district are very close to me whenever I used to be a part of my father's election campaign till I became a judge in 2003.
06:01I certainly would like to do some work for the Tribals in 2003.
06:08I am really grateful to the love and affection of all my colleagues, all my lawyer colleagues, not only from the Supreme Court,
06:30but from wherever I went to wherever I went to.
06:35I have received a lot of affection and love from the bar at Amroti, the bar at Nagpur, the bar at Aurangabad, the bar at Goa and of course the bar at Mumbai.
06:47The judges are like a family and I have received a lot of affection and warmth from the judges and their families.
07:00In fact, some of the judges' families are a family for me, including their children.
07:07And therefore, I said in the morning that when I handle the mantle to one of my dearest friends, ableist friends and we have a line of succession right from
07:19Justice Vikramnath and then our first lady CJI and so on.
07:26I think we know now who is in line till, I think, 32, 33.
07:35And as a member of the Collegium, as the Chief Justice, I think all five of us have a pride that we have brought in a person who will be there till 30, 30.
07:49For everybody, for every Chief Justice, I think he desires that there should be someone in his tenure who will become a CJI subsequently.
08:02So, thank you very much. I will remain always grateful to you.
08:09Before I end, I will only take two more minutes.
08:16My father had imbibed a value in me since my childhood.
08:22He said that if you can do something good for someone, then do it.
08:28But if you can't do good to someone, don't do anything harmful to anyone, not to anyone.
08:34As I started practice, one of the first things that I did was to buy Lord Denning's connection.
08:47And as I said in the morning, I was also inspired by his teachings.
08:51I won't repeat them what I said in the morning.
08:54But Lord Denning, in one of his books, has referred to a few words of John Wesley.
09:07I will only read them. I quote,
09:11Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.
09:28I have tried to follow these principles. I have tried to follow my father's teachings.
09:36I don't know how successful I have been in this.
09:40For a judge, the bar is a judge. Today is my judgment day. I don't know what is your verdict.
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