At the farewell organised by Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, Attorney General of India K K Venugopal applauded him for his privacy verdict. On Friday, Venugopal termed the judgement as “extraordinary in his farewell speech for the CJI. Not only this, he also lauded him for his triple talaq verdict. Venugopal said if it was not for Khehar the case would have faded in the Supreme Court. Indian Express quoted Venugopal saying, ” The second case for which he has to be given credit to his right to privacy. The nine judges came about because when the case was on the list, it was mentioned to him there was an eight-judge bench as well as a six-judge bench which had held that the right to privacy is not a fundamental right. And straightaway he said, ‘in which case I will constitute a nine-judges bench’.”
Venugopal further added that the judgement was welcomed by every single person in the society and regarded it as one of the greatest things that the Supreme Court of India has ever done. “We have now an extraordinary judgment which has upheld the right to privacy as a major fundamental right which, if we look into the newspapers or TV, has been welcomed by every single person in this country. And that, I think, is one of the greatest things that the Supreme Court of India has done,” said Venugopal.
Speaking on this occasion CJI JS Khehar said that he was indebted to the country for whatever he has achieved and thanked it for giving him the opportunity to serve it. Khehar said, ”I served my country in the manner of discharging a debt. And I feel that it’s difficult to ever discharge a debt to your country… something like you can never discharge your debt to your parents. Likewise, I feel it’s impossible to discharge the debt you owe to your country. All I can say is I worked with a clear conscience in response to the confidence reposed in me.”