Honble Dr. A.S. Anand the Chief Justice of India, Honble Justice S.P. Barucha the Chief Justice of India, designate, Honble Judges of the Supreme Court of India, the learned Attorney General of India, Honble Judges of the Delhi High Court and fellow members of the Bar.  

Today we have gathered here to honour Honble Dr. A.S. Anand, the 29th Chief Justices of India, on the culmination of his distinguished career as a judge and then the Chief Justice of India which he has now completed with the fullest share of burden this responsibility entails, and with profound dedication, dignity, grace and equanimity, and above all with a deep sense of justice. As a legacy, apart from a whole lot of memories to cherish, he has left a body of judicial text in the form of judgements informed by a lucid and authentic exposition of law which has the fervor of a law professor.

  Chief Justice Anand has always risen above every prejudice of any kind by taking recourse to the first principles, a belief that the world is wisely ordered and that every man must conform to the order which he cannot change, that whatever the Almighty has done is good, that all mankind is brethren and we must cherish them. He never allowed the pillars of his faith and sense of justice to shake at any cost and he continued to treat all those around him with utmost equanimity, a quality, a faculty of personhood and a culture trait which is slowly diminishing.

  Judgments delivered by him can be well compared to the literary narrative which after attaining the status of a classic, act as an inspiration, a model to be followed by the future generations. Therefore, the words of Bishop of Manchester for Charles Dickenss works are wholly apt for Chief Justice Anands judgments. With some suitable modifications to suit the context, and, in the same vein that Bishop of Manchester described the works of Charles Dickens, I describe the judgements written by Chief Justice Anand:

  I have read most of his works, and, so far as I can remember, there is not a single page, or one single sentence, tainted with any impurity or anything that would suggest a vile or vicious thought. I believe that the judgments, of which he was the author, have been pregnant with consequences of incalculable benefit to our people. It made us see, application of simple and fundamental principles of law to the most complex fact situations. It has taught us the great lessons of sympathy and thought in all things Chief Justice Anand is not what he might have desired, or what he might have been, yet we are not his judges. We do not know the circumstance of trial through which his life has passed. But I feel that our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the great judge for what he has done to elevate and purify human life where it most needed elevation and purification.

  And with these thoughts and sentiments I extend this customary vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, friends and colleagues on behalf of the Advocates-on-Record-Association and on my personal behalf.

  Aruneshwar Gupta

October 30, 2001 organized by SCAORA