Supreme Court chief justice visits Mumbai school and recalls student days

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court Chief Justice Bhushan Gavai visited his old school, Chikitsak Samuh High School in Girgaon, Mumbai, on Sunday. He studied there from standards 3 to 7 in Marathi medium.

The CJI praised his teachers for shaping him, crediting the debating skills he honed there and the values of equality and social benevolence inculcated in students for his rise to the topmost post in the Indian judiciary.

Walking down memory lane, the CJI shared nostalgic moments."Mother would give me 20 paisa. I would walk towards Mantralaya to catch the BEST bus number 5 to Gaiwadi and then walk some more to school each day.

The bus ticket cost 5 paise. In those days, a samosa patti would cost 5 paise with homemade jam, and misal pav would cost 10 paise." He studied between 1969 and 1973 at the school surrounded by chawls.

"I see the surroundings have not changed. The chawls are still visible from the school. The Marathi sanskriti is still intact here. This is part of the real 'amchi Mumbai," he said while speaking in Marathi to a gathering of his former batchmates, teachers, and school students—some of whom, as part of NCC, practised hard to form a band within six months to welcome him.

"Of all the welcomes I received so far across India and even abroad as a CJI, the little children's performance today as a band was the warmest," Justice Gavai gushed.

"I was interested in debates. This school gave me that platform, and PT class by Joshi Sir induced the necessary discipline in us as students. Studying in Marathi medium was not a handicap; it grounded me," he added. He expressed the pride he has in being a student of Chikitsak, which now is an English medium ICSE school as well.

The CJI met his old classmates who completed 10th in 1976. He also met the old school staff and, most of all, remembered one teacher whose signature on his school leaving certificate was the memento he was presented with and which he proudly accepted. The CJI's advice to young students was to work hard, be diligent and honest; the rewards would then follow.

Tucked in Sadashiv Cross Lane, the small three-storeyed school building has no lifts. On Sunday, the local Member of Legislative Assembly and Maharashtra minister, MP Lodha, who was also present, promised to help with the paperwork to install one.