CJI’s ‘cockroaches’ comment & clarification: Oral remarks and institutional limits

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 ...