“Not A Coffee Shop”: Chief Justice’s Language Rap To Lawyer Over ‘Yeah’

New Delhi:

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud today pulled up a lawyer for using the informal ‘yeah’ to address the bench and said he is “allergic” to the expression. He also reminded the lawyer that he was in the courtroom, not a cafe.

The lawyer mentioned a 2018 petition in which he had added former Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi as a respondent. “But is it an Article 32 plea? how can you file a PIL with a judge as a respondent,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked. Article 32 of the Constitution guarantees citizens the right to seek constitutional remedies when their fundamental rights are violated.

In response, the lawyer said, “Yeah, yeah the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi… I was asked to file a curative…” The Chief Justice cut him short. “This is not a coffee shop! what is this yeah yeah. I am very allergic to this yeah yeah. This cannot be allowed.”

“Justice Gogoi was a former judge of this court. You cannot file a plea like this against a judge and seek an in-house inquiry because you did not succeed before the bench,” the Chief Justice said.

The lawyer responded, “But Justice Gogoi dismissed my plea relying on the statement that I had challenged for being illegal. I had no fault, I had requested CJI Thakur to move my review plea before a bench conversant with the labour laws. But that did not happen and it was dismissed.” The Chief Justice then told the lawyer in Marathi that he cannot impugn a judge when he challenges a high court judgment.

The Chief Justice said the registry would look at the petition and asked the petitioner to delete the name of Justice Gogoi — now a Rajya Sabha MP — from his petition.