No, I don't regret: Justice Kurian Joseph on January 12 press conference

Kurian Joseph, outgoing Supreme Court judge, on Friday said he has no regrets over the ‘unprecedented’ January 12 press conference by four apex court judges, including him, that pointed out various issues regarding functioning of the court, and asserted that things are changing. Joseph, who retired on Thursday, and three other Supreme Court judges, including now Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice MB Lokur and former judge J Chelameswar, had raised serious questions over allocation of cases in the top court.

"What a strange question you are asking? I never regretted whatever I did, I did it very consciously for a cause and for a cause for which there was no other way left. That was the stage, when we did it," said Joseph on being asked about the press conference.

According to him, systems and practices in the Supreme Court would take time to change as they have been there for quite long.

"The process of change will continue. Even the earlier chief justice made changes after the press conference," he said.

Referring to CJI Gogoi, Joseph, however, said since one who was part of the clamour for change is also now the captain over, there so things should change.

When Joseph was asked whether the problem of roster is now over in the apex court, he replied, "Probably that is the one mistake. It is not a question of roster.

 "It was question of some unhealthy practice and systems which were followed in the Supreme Court but in the matter of business actually. So, it was against that although roster was one of the issues but there were other issues along with that," he added.

Elaborating on issues raised in the press conference, he said: "As I told that roster was one of the issue but not the only issue. There were certain systems and practices which we have been asking like instead of individual taking a decision without consulting anybody, let's have some systems and practices to be followed which would be healthy for the institutions".

When asked about the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri masjid land dispute case, Joseph said he would not like to answer the questions with regard to issues which are currently pending before the court.

(With PTI inputs)