‘What is this yeah-yeah? This is not a coffee shop’; CJI raps lawyer

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up a lawyer for using informal and inappropriate language in court while arguing a PIL seeking an in-house inquiry against former CJI Ranjan Gogoi for dismissing his petition related to a service dispute.

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“What is this ‘yeah-yeah’? This is not a coffee shop. I am very allergic to this ‘yeah-yeah’. This cannot be allowed (in courts),” the CJI told the lawyer after he responded by uttering ‘yeah-yeah’ in response to a court query.

Taking strong exception to former CJI Ranjan Gogoi being made a party to the PIL, a Bench led by CJI Chandrachud asked, “How can you file a PIL with a judge as a respondent? There has to be some dignity. You cannot just say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge. Justice Ranjan Gogoi was a former judge of the Supreme Court.”

“He retired as the Chief Justice of India. You cannot say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge because you did not succeed before the bench. Sorry, we cannot tolerate this”, the Bench told the Pune-based litigant.

He filed the PIL after his plea relating to his termination of services under labour laws was dismissed by a Bench headed by Justice Gogoi who retired on November 17, 2019. Currently, he is a Rajya Sabha MP.

The litigant claimed that this was a case of “illegal termination”.

However, the top court wasn’t convinced. “How can you file a PIL in a service matter after dismissal of the petition and the review plea? You should have filed a curative petition,” said the CJI who also interacted with the petitioner in Marathi to explain legal and procedural issues to him.

The Bench asked him to make a statement before the court’s registry that he will delete the name of Justice Gogoi from the list of parties.