CJI takes foster daughters on tour of his workplace

NEW DELHI: Mahi and Priyanka had a constant refrain that their family time with foster father, Justice D Y Chandrachud, had been shrinking since he took oath as the 50th Chief Justice of India on November 9 and that used to hurt him a lot.
No amount of explanation by the CJI about the massive increase in workload as head of the judiciary would convince the two differently-abled daughters, with whom he and his wife Kalpana are very attached.
To make them realise about his work and understand how the courts dispense justice, the CJI on Friday decided to give his foster daughters a guided tour of his chamber as well as the CJI's courtroom, the largest in the SC.
The daughters first visited his chamber which comprises a huge office room with two adjacent small ante-rooms, all located behind the CJI's courtroom. The daughters were surprised to see so many Registrars queueing in to take directions on various administrative issues from the CJI.
Before commencing judicial work at 10.30am, the CJI accompanied the two electric wheelchair-bound daughters to enter the courtroom through the lawyers' entry gate, much to the surprise of the assembled lawyers. The CJI, dressed in casuals, told his daughters where he sits while dispensing justice and adjudicating disputes.
The high dais of judges and the crowd of lawyers ready with their case files and electronic tablets to argue the cases of their clients left a mark on the two daughters. Though they understood the workload and the working space of the CJI, but that may not dilute their complaint against CJI for being frugal with his family time since November 9.
CJI Chandrchud will have a tenure of two years and two days till his retirement on November 10, 2024. His father Y V Chandrachud was the 16th CJI who holds an unbeatable record of seven years and five months at the helm.