Overview

• Chief Justice Bhushan R. Gavai was honoured on July 8 by the Maharashtra Legislature at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.
• He quoted Dr B.R. Ambedkar to argue for an independent judiciary free from executive interference as a guardian of citizens’ rights.
• Gavai portrayed the Constitution as an evolving framework and a “weapon of bloodless revolution” that must safeguard its basic structure.
• He stressed strict separation of powers, urging the executive, legislature and judiciary to operate within their constitutional mandates.
• Opposition legislators used the occasion to submit petitions on unresolved Shiv Sena and NCP defection cases and the prolonged vacancy of the Leader of Opposition post.