NEW DELHI: Following in the footsteps of his Supreme Court colleague
Justice J Chelameswar, Justice
Kurian Joseph announced on Monday that he too would not accept any assignment after his retirement on November 29 .
During an interaction with the media on Saturday, Justice Chelameswar had declared that he would not accept any post-retirement assignment. He will retire on June 22. Since the Supreme Court came into being on January 26, 1950, an overwhelming majority of the 44 Chief Justices of India and the 161 SC judges have accepted post-retirement assignments, either from governments or from private organisations.
T he announcement from Justice Joseph, the fourth seniormost SC judge, about not accepting any post-retirement assignment came when he was speaking on 'Media and Judiciary - Two Watchdogs of Democracy' before students of
Kerala Media Academy at Kerala House here. Justice Joseph clarified to TOI that he would not hesitate to take up arbitration and mediation assignments after retirement and would continue with his philanthropic activities .
While speaking to the students, he quoted the popular proverb "a barking dog seldom bites" and said watchdogs were a different breed. "Watchdogs (media and judiciary) bark loudly when they find someone tinkering with property (democracy) they are tasked to protect," he said. "If their loud barks do not deter the persons tinkering with the property or it does not wake up the custodian of the property (government and politicians), then the watchdogs will not hesitate to bite. That is the beauty of democracy and that is the difference between a barking dog and a watchdog," he added.
Justice Joseph was part of the five-judge bench that by a majority verdict had quashed triple talaq as unconstitutional last year .
Born on November 30, 1953, he began legal practise in 1979 in Kerala HC and was appointed government pleader in 1987. He served as additional advocate general from 1994 to 1996 and was designated senior advocate in 1996. He was appointed judge of Kerala HC in July 2000 and became chief justice of Himachal Pradesh HC in 2010. He was appointed to the SC in 2013. Recently, he had joined Justice Chelameswar and two other senior judges to hold an unprecedented press conference to criticise allocation of important cases for hearing to benches headed by 'junior SC judges'.
