That day he was retiring as a Judge of Supreme Court of India. In a farewell function arranged by Supreme Court Bar Association, the Judge was giving his advice, particularly for younger generation of lawyers.
He was from a family of lawyers. The family had high regards towards judiciary.
He told younger generation of lawyers something like this:
"Judiciary is our mother. Treat her with reverence which we give to our mother. Serve those who are in need of justice. Try to help them in getting justice. But at all times, serve judiciary as your mother.
.. Money will come. Lots of money will come if you decide to serve Judiciary as mother. Do not let judiciary weaken."
This was his advice.
Earlier when he was a Chief Justice in a High Court, he had set up an inquiry committee which led to Impeachment Proceeding against a sitting High Court Judge, against whom some allegations were made. Later that Judge had to resign when addressing Parliament.
Justice Sirpurkar retired on 21.8.2011.
But I still remember his advice to members of Bar to treat Judiciary as Mother.
And hence, today I have written down this memoir for benefit of younger generation of Bar.
It is not as if we do not have Judges and Lawyers with high integrity.
The Bad Apples get all the publicity in newspapers and therefore people think low about judges and lawyers.
Haresh Raichura
12/07/2014