"Firmness And Kindness Are Not Opposites," CJI Surya Kant Says Bidding Farewell To Justice Sanjay Karol

Justice Sanjay Karol, who demits office as a judge of the Supreme Court of India tomorrow, was remembered at his farewell reference on Friday as a judge who rarely used the word "dismissed," preferring instead to tell litigants that he had heard them out fully before deciding their case.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, delivering the Bench's farewell address at the event organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association, said this was the clearest marker of Justice Karol's approach to judging: his courtroom was never intimidating, but built for dialogue rather than confrontation, where even sharply divided parties left with the sense that their dispute would be resolved fairly.

"Even when the disagreements were sharp between the parties, he ensured that every party leaves with the sense that they have been heard properly and that their disputes will be resolved with fairness," CJI Kant said, adding that this instinct also showed in Justice Karol's steady push for mediation and settlement across family, service and commercial matters. "For my brother Justice Karol, justice has never just meant that every dispute must have a winner and a loser. Instead, he has encouraged the parties before him to always try to settle and talk to one another to find common ground for mutual agreement."

CJI Kant traced their association back nearly four decades, to when both were young lawyers, Justice Karol practising largely in Delhi and CJI Kant in Chandigarh, with Shimla's courts often bringing them together. Their careers ran on parallel tracks again as advocates general for their states, and later when CJI Kant, on becoming Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, found Justice Karol serving as the senior-most judge, having earlier held charge as acting chief justice before his elevation as Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court in November 2018.

Recalling what he had said of Justice Karol at that 2018 farewell, CJI Kant said he had then called him "an ideal judge who is always eager to do justice to the oppressed and deserving and has never allowed technicalities to overshadow the free flow of justice." Nearly eight years on, he said, those words had "not only stood the test of time, but remain as true today as they were then."

CJI Kant also spoke of Justice Karol's regard for the Bar's younger members, many of whom appeared as amicus before him, noting he made it a practice to tell senior advocates when their juniors had argued a matter well. "To a young lawyer, such encouraging words from a senior judge can mean far more than any reassurance," he said.

On the judicial record he leaves behind, CJI Kant pointed to his criminal law judgments as reflecting a careful balance between society's legitimate interests and the constitutional promise of fairness to an accused, firm where the law demanded firmness, yet alert to safeguards protecting individuals from the coercive power of the state. His work on motor accident compensation claims, the CJI added, showed a judge deeply compassionate and attuned to social realities.

One episode from before Justice Karol reached the Supreme Court stayed with CJI Kant: during a drinking water shortage in Shimla, he had taken suo motu notice and gone in person to the distribution point, ensuring the supply reached ordinary residents without being cornered by the well-connected.

Closing his address, CJI Kant invoked former Attorney General Fali S. Nariman's words that every judge leaving the Supreme Court must feel he has left "a little brick of his own making" in the institution's edifice. "Brother Karol, as you leave the Bench, there can be little doubt that you have left your own brick in that great edifice," he said, thanking him for reminding the Bench that firmness and kindness are complementary, not opposed, in judging.