Good morning everyone good morning Merry Christmas Merry Christmas uh my very very distinguished brother and dear friend Justice sanjie Kanna my very dear friend and distinguished colleague brother amanullah uh the president of the bar uh Mr adish agarwala Vice President uh bosi G who’s looking quite quite a Christmasy
Vice president today Rohit Pand luga all the members of the executive committee and all the seniors Juniors everyone who is present here the media persons wishing you a merry Christmas I’m sure that we have the uh the cattle singers here so this is not a day to make big speeches but in the spirit of the occasion I will only say we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year okay now one more for the one one more for the uh one more for the Carol Singers this is one of my favorites so are the Carol Singers here to send to Sing Rudolph Rudolph the redn Reindeer okay are you ready okay Rudolf the rednose Reindeer had a very shy
Know and if you ever saw you would Even chrm came to S with yourse so won’t you all The and they shouted out With okay now the great one jingle bell jingle well jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride and run open sleigh hey jingle bell jingle bell jingle all the way what to ride in one jingle bell jingle all the what Sing s ton hey jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a on open S hey jingle bells jingle bell jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a one Open thank you very much thank you very much for that uh be beautiful way to begin the Christmas morning uh Christmas is a very special time it’s a very special time uh it’s a time of compassion it’s a time of love it’s a time of healing it’s a time of
Understanding it’s a time for blessing each other with how much we have in our lives thanks to the institutions which we are in namely the institutions of Justice which lead the way in the rule of law but it’s also a time for us to remind us that our lives have to be
Spent in the betterment of others uh I think that is a great message of the life of Lord Jesus Christ uh who sacrificed everything so that Humanity can see a better future now I think uh there’s something that we have to all learn from these uh very important significant cultural occasions
In our country the sense of uh Oneness the sense of uh universality because our Humanity in that sense transcends our religion and I think that is what uh Christmas really tells us uh the importance of being together in everything that we do uh so thank you very much adish sharal G Rohit
Patosi G and the entire SCBA team for putting this together uh I must share something with you uh I went to a very nice School in Mumbai called the cathedral in John Conan school and uh I was the first member of my family to go to an English school my parents uh went
To a marati medium School so my sister and I we went to an English medium school and in many ways uh it was a little alien to us the culture because we had a very traditional maharashtrian culture at home but then when we went to school the culture was very different
But uh I learned you know to sort of come out of my own Capon and my own shell and try and meet new people make new friends uh so on and so forth uh but one thing which my school from Cathedral when I came to Delhi I studied at St
Columbus I went to St stepan’s college and I think one of the one of the things which these institutions taught me uh the first thing which Cathedral taught me was that we always said uh The Lord’s Prayer in the morning which I uh remember even to this day and it’s such
A beautiful prayer which says Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us for thine is the
Kingdom thine is the glory forever and ever amen uh we began our day with that and we ended our day every day in Mumbai by saying thank you God for the world so sweet thank you God for the food we eat thank you God for the birds that sing thank you God for
Everything so but one very important thing one very important thing which my school taught me in Mumbai was an intense sense of nationalism and I think that was something which the school taught us that the nation is above all of us and that we will we will give up
Everything we will give up everything if it comes to it even our lives as so many people in our Armed Forces do uh in the service of the nation we lost four of our uh members of the Armed Forces a few days ago so just as we celebrate
Christmas let us not forget those who on our borders who are giving up their lives who are spending you know these wintry Christmas mornings uh the winter uh to protect us and our nation so when we sing We also sing for them in celebration in understanding the
Work which they do we also sing for the doctors and hospitals many of them may be operating upon critical patients this morning at this time saving lives we must also sing for the nurses who would be attending to critically sick patients who were not with their families on
Christmas so I believe that we are blessed to be with our families we are blessed to be with you our family today on the occasion of Christmas thank you so uh this is something which I think my school taught me our College taught me but one thing which my school
And my college taught me is the universality of religion so just as I told you that I I I know the the Lord’s Prayer by heart even today because you don’t forget what you learned as a child there’s not a single day in my life
Which doesn’t go by when I don’t say the ramaka so it’s the same culture which permeates our our existence that just as we know the Lord’s Prayer we sing all these beautiful carols in our own lives we are we are what we are but in our public Persona We Stand by the
Constitution and in the cases which we decide in the work which we do for us there is one holy book as judges as lawyers and that is the constitution of and the Constitution also tells us about this inclusive India where all of us are one we are all involved in one
Mission to make this nation a better place and to leave our nation better than what we received from our ancestors so let’s not forget all that on the occasion of Christmas now I want to be uh telling you a few things we have been doing a couple of things
For the uh members of the bar I’m not saying I’m doing something special uh I couldn’t have done it uh without the assistance of my own colleagues Justice Sanjay Cole whose uh birthday is and who’s who’s going to be demitting office uh justice sanjie Kanna takes over now
As a c colleague who has been an enormous source of strength and guidance to me other colleagues in the collegium senior judges just Justice buhan GA justice suryakant justice anud BOS Justice BNA and now of course I have our the the spirit of our Brotherhood who is Jus
Aman who is full of humor full of laughter full of energy every morning when we have coffee so we have been doing a few things for the bar because we are not doing it as a gift for Christmas don’t think that it’s a gift from us you are entitled to it you are
Entitled to it as a matter of right uh you know as I was going to tell you the uh the conference rooms the consultation rooms are ready the arbitration area is completely ready uh a lot of other facilities for the bar as you know we are going to be working on
The area which is parallely opposite the uh the VIS the the uh visitors pass room for setting up a completely new facilities for the members of the bar and the and the litigants on which work is going to begin uh the work of constructing the new building of the Supreme Court is
Substantially now underway uh we are expecting the final nod from the government of India uh in a very short while the meeting was to be held on the last Friday it is now taking place on the 27th and very soon I hope we’ll be able to do the uh Foundation
Ceremony of our uh new building where we’ll have uh we’ll have not just good courtrooms not just good courtrooms but good facilities for members of the bar the the women’s bar has grown significantly we must have a place for the women lawyers to sit there has to be a place
For SCBA a much larger library for SCBA areas for litigant for scora for all of the lawyers all the stakeholders over here so this is something which we are going to start in the new year but then today is Christmas and I can’t end my uh I can’t end my little speech this
Morning without something more than what you all know about now if everybody keeps a little quiet I’ll be able to share with you something which I have uh just two days before we closed uh I requested uh brother Justice sanjie kanana uh justice bushan gaay uh Justice suryakant Justice nagaratna and Justice
Vikram who are members of the building committee to accompany me uh to the place where we have been allotted some Land by the government of India now as you know the area of land which had been allotted by the government was initially rather small so we were pursuing the
Government to increase the area of allotment so that the adjoining area which was allotted to the to an oil company can be allotted to the Supreme Court because an oil company can move its facilities a little away but for us it’s very important to have facil is
Close to the Supreme Court so we inspected the area and uh I must share with you a very happy news on the occasion of Christmas that a decision has been taken we have all informally decided and you have already asked for the drawings to be prepared for the
Construction of a new set of Chambers for the members of our uh the reason why I’m not agal g the the reason why I can’t give exact precise number is because is because of the fact that the drawings are being prepared so uh it will be it will be
Substantially larger than what was uh earlier so uh we will also have in the process we are also thinking of having conference rooms for uh members of the bar and consultation rooms for the members of the bar so that those who don’t get Chambers will also have places
Where they can come and sit the younger Juniors of the bar who thank you sir thank you so much uh the idea is the idea is that any member of the bar who comes to the Supreme Court should have on the very first day a place where you
Can sit do your work attend to your work and uh and uh gather strength as a lawyer so this is a decision uh this is a decision yes this is a decision which we have uh taken now one last thing which I wanted to share
With you uh part of my work is not merely to do these things but also to reform the institutions and processes of the Supreme Court no reform in that sense is simple to accept unless we also take some of the hard decisions reform can never take place within the system
Now on the adjournments which Justice which Mr aala mentioned I’ve already constituted a committee uh consisting of Justice sanjie K Justice bushan GA and Justice suya Khan they will meet meet the members of the bar immediately after we uh reopen we will institutionalize the process we will institutionalize the
Process of seeking adjournments at the same time you must understand my perspective because if I don’t give you my perspective it will not be uh it will not be fair I’m also concerned about the fact that we don’t exist here in the Supreme Court only for lawyers and
Judges we exist for the litigants at large and I therefore want to institutionalize the process I understand the concerns of the bar that there may be some reasons why I’ve been a member of the bar myself and I still consider myself a member of the bar I
Hope agala G has not stuck off my name from the roles of the SCB so I’m I’m still a member of the scbi hope uh so I’m a member of the bar uh at the same time we must ensure we must ensure that we answer the needs of
The litigants I understand that there are times when you have to take adjournments there’s a bement in somebody’s family there’s a marriage in somebody’s family somebody has a medical ailment you have to file you have to file a counter therefore you require time for filing a cter affid but tell me
How do I justify 4,000 slips where a lawyer only says I want an adjournment because I’m I’m not available or the council is not available we have to institutionalize the process so that people we do not become a laughing stock in society we will not become a laughing
Stock in Society provided we send a message to society that we are very serious about the work which we do last year we have set an unprecedented record and I thank all my colleagues and the members of the bar for it this record of disposal of 52,000 cases last
Year this would not have been possible without the cooperation of the bar it is only because all of you are ready to argue your cases before us that we are able to dispose of these cases because we can’t dispose of the cases looking at the files and saying well I don’t need
The lawyers to argue the cas the quality of Justice depends on the kind of arguments which you all make before us so I want to thank all of you for the members of the bar for cooperating with us and for raising this bar for the Supreme Court to dispose of as many as
52,000 cases in one year and let’s set a Target that we will exceed even 52,000 in the next year and please rest assured please rest sure that the request which has been made by Mr agala G will be attended to at the earliest the committee will look into it
And I’m sure we’ll come to a very very satisfactory resolution thank you so much sir paying tribute to the Four soldiers who recently lost their lives at rajor the Chief Justice of India at a Christmas celebration said that while we celebrate festivals we must not forget the sacrifice of the brave soldiers who
Lay down their Liv lives leave everything and suffer in the cold weather to ensure that we the citizens of India are protected the Chief Justice also gave a message of unity and diversity and ex inclusivity in the country that the Constitution must be the holy book of all even no matter what
We may be in our private lives the Chief Justice of India at his speech at the Supreme Court Bar Association event has called for everyone to ensure that all religions all festivals are celebrated but the Constitution is kept above all the SCBA for the first time has held these Christmas celebrations in the
Supreme Court premises and has promised that festivals of all religions will now be celebrated in presence of lawyers and judges as a get together for the next year in New Delhi this is Anisha matur for India today
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