Justice Chelameswar Retires From SC, Says Will Never Fight Polls or Join Politics

New Delhi: “I will never join electoral politics… I will never fight elections," Justice J Chelameswar has declared.

Amid speculation over whether the outgoing Supreme Court judge was interested in making politics his second inning, Justice Chelameswar has cleared the air by stating it emphatically that he would never join politics.

Speaking exclusively to CNN-News18, Justice Chelameswar ruled out any possibility of his either joining any political party or floating a political outfit of his own in future.

“I am not going to join any political party…nor will I contest elections. No…I will not make anything like that (a political party)," he told CNN-News18.

When asked if he would support any candidate in the latter’s political endeavours, Justice Chelameswar replied in negative. “No politics of any kind for me…in any form of electoral politics, it is a no," he added.

Justice Chelameswar added that for him, definition of ‘politics’ was a broader one. “Even a discussion of the Constitution etc can be called as politics. Debates on various issues can be politics too. But as far as electoral politics is concerned, I am never going to join it," he said.

Justice Chelameswar, who has already announced that he would not take up any post-retirement job from the government, was speaking on the eve of his retirement from the apex court.

His statement has come at a time when Abhay Mahadeo Thipsay, a former Judge of the Bombay and Allahabad High Courts, has recently joined Congress.

Minutes after the January 12 historic press conference was held at Justice Chelameswar’s official residence in New Delhi, Communist Party of India leader and Rajya Sabha MP D Raja had visited the judge. This sparked off rumours whether Justice Chelameswar is going to join politics after the tenure of his judgeship ends on June 22.

Justice Chelameswar has been known for an exceptionally eventful tenure in the Court wherein he raised questions over the Collegium system of appointing judges, went ahead with a press conference against the sitting Chief Justice of India and wrote letters reproaching the ‘governmental interference’ in judiciary’s affairs.