Justice Rajesh Bindal retires; CJI Surya Kant, Attorney General hail his achievements
On his last day in office, Justice Bindal sits with CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi in a ceremonial Bench in court no. 1 where judges and advocates heap praise on him
As Justice Rajesh Bindal retired after a little over three-year stint as a Supreme Court judge, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday hailed his achievements; saying he not only performed the “adjudicatory role” as a judge, but also discharged institutional responsibilities with integrity and had an unparalleled case disposal rate.
On his last day in office, Justice Bindal sat with CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi in a ceremonial Bench in court no. 1 where judges and advocates heaped praise on him with the CJI describing him as a distinguished jurist who "strengthened" the institutions wherever he served.
Noting that public trust and confidence in court were "very important" because courts are the last remedy, Justice Bindal said the problems, if any, affecting the judiciary should be sorted out in-house and not be discussed in public.
Speaking at a farewell function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association, Justice Bindal said that mandating prior legal practice before joining the judiciary as munsiff/magistrate helped young judges to understand courtroom functioning and the realities faced by litigants and lawyers.
Born on April 16, 1961, in Ambala, Justice Bindal began his legal career in 1985 after earning his law degree from the Kurukshetra University and was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006. He then went on to serve in multiple high courts, including the Jammu and Kashmir HC, Calcutta HC, and Allahabad HC, where he also held positions as the chief justice. He was elevated to the top court on February 13, 2023 and demitted office on April 15, 2026 with over three-year tenure in which he authored over 100 judgments.
With Justice Bindal’s retirement, the total number of vacancies in the top court, having 34 sanctioned posts of judges, touches two.
Justice Bindal belonged to that "rare class of judges" whose contribution is measured not only by what they decided, but also by what they enabled the institution to do better, CJI Kant said.
Recalling his decades-long association with Justice Bindal, the CJI said, “We have spent a great deal of time together, as you have seen from the record. I have had the privilege of knowing him from very close quarters, even in my earlier professional life. With the passage of time, both of us were often engaged in dealing with tax matters, and later, more focused matters, while I was handling other jurisdictions…He was, of course, known for his integrity and his hard work.”
Justice Kant said he and Justice Bindal had the opportunity to work together on this side of the Bench.
“Both of us, I am told, were known, as rightly pointed out by the learned Attorney General, for our rate of disposal of cases. I could never compete with him, and there was no question of surpassing his record. He was well known for his very fast disposal,” he added.
Attorney General R Venkataramani highlighted his staggering statistics from his tenure at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. “Over a span of 12 years, Justice Bindal handled approximately 80,000 cases, an average of 6,000 cases per year. I thought it was a mere statistic, but no. It is an immense body of work,” Venkataramani said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta described him as having “the eyes of a good human being yet the demeanour of a very tough judge on the Bench”.
