CJI’s ‘cockroaches’ comment & clarification: Oral remarks...

Chief Justice Surya Kant’s “cockroaches” remark from the bench on May 15, and the clarification that followed, have revived a question the Supreme Court has tried to settle twice; the Constitution does not regulate casual judicial speech; the standard the Court has set out asks the public to read bench remarks as distinct from the formal opinion, and asks judges to keep that distinction from collapsing Chief Justice Surya Kant’s “cockroaches” remark from the bench on May 15, and the clarification that followed, have revived a question the Supreme Court has tried to settle twice; the Constitution does not regulate casual judicial speech; the standard the Court has set out asks the public to read bench remarks as distinct from the formal opinion, and asks judges to keep that distinction from collapsing