Institutional imprint

Every Chief Justice, while leaving office, should also be assessed on how they carried out their duties as the Supreme Court of India’s administrative head. On that count, Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai’s term stands out for treating the institution as a service delivery mechanism, not merely a forum for lofty pronouncements. While much will be said about how the Court’s jurisprudence developed—or devolved, depending on one’s view—over the last six months, CJI Gavai leaves a distinct imprint on how the Court manages and communicates its administrative work. 

Soon after he assumed office, he implemented the earlier decision—introduced under CJI D.Y. Chandrachud—to rename the Court’s summer break from ‘Vacation’ to ‘Partial Court Working Days’. The move invited caustic comments, including from this writer (here and here), but it was hard to ignore the growing, and often uninformed, perception that long breaks reflect judicial lethargy. The nomenclature change was not just cosmetic—in a departure from previous years, the seniormost judges of the Court helmed Benches during the break. 

CJI Gavai also made moves to modernise the Registry system, promote digitisation and improve case flow management. He restored oral mentioning of urgent matters but with a twist: he insisted the briefing or junior counsel take the lead. The idea was to chip away at the perception that priority listing is the preserve of a handful of senior lawyers with a direct line to the Chief’s court. 

The Guidelines for Retention and Destruction of Records were also released during his tenure. This is an attempt to promote coherence in, and accountability for, the sprawling administrative records of the Court. In June, CJI Gavai announced reservations in the Court’s administrative staff roles. This was a response to criticism that the Court had failed to apply its own judgements on affirmative action. 

The Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS), the Court’s AI-assisted translation software, was launched in 2019 under the then CJI Bobde. It has since been used to translate thousands of judgements into multiple Indian languages. It was a recurring reference point in CJI Gavai’s speeches on accessibility. At the inauguration of an e-library at the Amravati District and Sessions Court, he mentioned how district courts and young lawyers need reliable digital access to the latest case law if virtual hearings are to be meaningful. 

Towards the end of his tenure, pendency crossed 90,000 for the first time in a while. My colleague Gauri contends that CJI Gavai did not have a concerted strategy to tackle the towering case pile. But pendency is a many-headed monster. My reading is that he may have chosen to focus on the tribunal-related aspect of this hydra. A mere six months in office will invariably involve a form of triage. His decision to take up the long-pending challenge to the Tribunals Reforms Act suggests an attempt to achieve closure in his chosen battle. 

His focus on institutional reform in the district judiciary was evident in two of the three Constitution Bench matters he chose to hear during his tenure. He took these up over several more high-profile cases (Sabarimala, the Citizenship Amendment Act, sedition) that would have more readily cemented his legacy in the public eye. One case concerned in-service judges seeking entry to the district judiciary through the advocate stream; the other dealt with reservations for Civil Judges in promotions to Principal District Judge. Seen together, they point to an awareness that the Supreme Court’s credibility is closely tied to the quality and everyday functioning of the subordinate judiciary.

CJI Gavai’s view of institutional processes—across the judicial ladder—as central to legitimacy suggests that he might be less preoccupied with immediate assessments on how he ruled in the big cases in his docket. Chiefs are judged by where they land on the burning issues of the day, but CJI Gavai’s legacy may equally lie in the bricks laid in the institutional edifice.

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