OUTGOING Chief Justice of India Justice B R Gavai on Friday said he was leaving the institution “with a full sense of satisfaction and contentment” and as a “student of justice” on conclusion of his journey as a lawyer and a judge that spanned nearly four decades. During the farewell proceedings before the ceremonial bench that also comprised CJI-designate Surya Kant and Justice K Vinod Chandran, the CJI said,

 

“After listening to all of you, and particularly the poems of Attorney General (R Venkataramani) and Kapil Sibal and the warm sentiments expressed by all of you, my voice is choking with emotions.” “When I leave this courtroom for the last time …, I leave this court all with full sense of satisfaction, the full sense of contentment that I have done whatever which I could have done for this country…

 

Thank you. Thank you very much,” a visibly emotional Gavai said in the courtroom packed with law officers, senior advocates, and young lawyers. The proceedings saw colleagues reminiscing the imprint Justice Gavai, the second Dalit after K G Balakrishnan and first Buddhist CJI, left on the judiciary. “I always believe that everybody, every judge, every lawyer, is governed by the principles on which our Constitution works that is equality, justice, liberty, and fraternity and I tried to discharge my duties within the four corners of the Constitution that is so dear to all of us,” he said.