New Delhi, August 12 (PTI): The whole system would have failed during the COVID-19 pandemic without the work done by the court staff and registry, said Delhi High Court Judge Rajiv Sahai Endlaw who demitted office on Thursday.
Justice Endlaw, who was speaking at the virtual function held by the high court to bid him adieu, stated that besides the staff, the law researchers also made a large contribution which must be brought to the fore.
“This Court has a tradition of honouring judges, lawyers. But till now I have not noticed any tradition of honouring these two facets of the court system without which our court system was a failure in the pandemic, and who have played a great role. Without them, the Delhi High Court would not have done the work the entire country is talking of,” the judge said.
Acknowledging the work done and “sacrifices” made by the staff, Justice Endlaw said that most of his work or its quality would not have been possible without them.
“We are fortunate. We have been provided these big houses where we have our home office. But the stenographers were opening up their screens, telling their family to keep quiet, telling their children not to study, not to listen to songs or telling family not to pass behind them..” he remarked.
The judge said that he would “humbly accept all the praises” showered on him not only for himself but also on behalf of the law researchers and the staff.
“I had never paid much attention to the staff and the Registry. But one realized that whatever we are doing, whatever praise all of you have showered on my work today – that praise, without all that support staff, is meaningless,” Justice Endlaw said.
In his farewell address, Chief Justice DN Patel said that Justice Endlaw was hardworking and punctual and his contribution to justice would always be remembered and cherished.
During his tenure of 13 years as a judge, Justice Endlaw authored several landmark judgements.
In August 2011, Justice Endlaw imposed Rs one lakh costs on Suresh Kalmadi, who was lodged in jail in Commonwealth Games scam, while dismissing his plea seeking permission to attend the ongoing Parliament session.
In 2016, the judge lifted a ban on a photocopy shop located at the Delhi University campus from selling photocopies of chapters from textbooks of some international publishers to the students, saying copyright in literary works did not confer “absolute ownership” to the authors.
In May 2019, Justice Endlaw dismissed a plea for recreating the demolished Hall of Nations and the Nehru Pavilion at a separate location and held that an architect could not restrain the owner of a building he has designed from demolishing it.
Justice Endlaw was born on August 13, 1959 at Delhi and he completed his LLB from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University.
He enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in July 1982 and was appointed as Additional Judge of Delhi High Court in April 2008 and became a permanent judge on July 6, 2011.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, Delhi Government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Bar Council of Delhi”s Chairman Ramesh Gupta and Delhi High Court Bar Association”s President Mohit Mathur also bid farewell to the judge.
