India News | Delhi HC Bids Farewell to Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Delhi High Court on Friday bid adieu to Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar upon his retirement from office.
New Delhi, May 31 (PTI) Delhi High Court on Friday bid adieu to Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar upon his retirement from office.
Justice Bhatnagar, who will demit office on June 14, was given a farewell on Friday, which was the high court's last working day before it closes for the summer vacation.
Speaking at the farewell reference, Justice Bhatnagar said, "For the Greek philosopher Epicurus, life was like a banquet and he maintained that a person who had eaten his fill should not begrudge the end of the meal but graciously push back his chair so that another may take his place at the table."
"I might yet find some way of sneaking into the kitchen for a midnight snack from the legal fridge but the time has come for me to push back my legal chair. I do not know who will come in my place but I wish him or her 'bon appetit'. I am taking with me sweet memories which I will always cherish," he said.
With Justice Bhatnagar's retirement, the strength of the high court has come down to 39 judges against a sanctioned strength of 60.
Justice Bhatnagar, who had been a practicing lawyer for 13 years and a judicial officer for 24 years, was part of the division bench of the high court that, in October 2022, rejected activist Umar Khalid's bail plea in the "larger conspiracy case" pertaining to the 2020 Delhi riots.
Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said Justice Bhatnagar brought immense judicial experience on the bench owing to his long career in the district judiciary and it was reflected in his judicial approach.
"A deep understanding of the nature of litigation and litigants before the courts of first instance or the trial courts is an asset for a judge, irrespective of his place in the judicial hierarchy ... In his approach towards the law, he never leaned in favour of rigidity," Justice Manmohan said.
Born on June 14, 1962, Justice Bhatnagar completed his BSc from Delhi University in 1983 and LLB from the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, in 1987.
He enrolled himself as a lawyer in 1987 and joined the Delhi Higher Judicial Service in 2000. He was elevated as a permanent judge of Delhi High Court on May 27, 2019.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)