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New Delh: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has landed in a major controversy after likening unemployed youth to \u201ccockroaches\u201d and \u201cparasites\u201d, remarks that have sparked widespread criticism across the country.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, the comments were made during a hearing related to the designation of a senior advocate before a bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.<\/p>\n
During the proceedings, the CJI remarked: \u201cThere are already parasites of society who attack the system, and you want to join hands with them?\u201d He further added: \u201cThere are youngsters like cockroaches, who don\u2019t get any employment or don\u2019t have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some social media, some RTI activists, and some become other activists, and they start attacking everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarks triggered strong backlash, with critics saying that the CJI \u201cdehumanized\u201d an entire generation grappling with chronic joblessness.<\/p>\n
Congress leader P. Chidambaram said the statement reflects a \u201cdeep disconnect from reality\u201d. \u201cUnemployed youth are not cockroaches. They are citizens with rights. Activism and a free press are pillars of democracy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Senior advocate Indira Jaising called the comments \u201cunfortunate and unbecoming of a constitutional authority,\u201d stating that courts exist to hear grievances, not to insult vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n
RTI activists and journalist bodies have also condemned the remarks, emphasizing that transparency advocates and media professionals play a key role in exposing corruption and holding power to account.<\/p>\n
Outside the Indian Supreme Court, small groups of unemployed youth and law students staged protests, holding placards reading \u201cWe are not cockroaches\u201d and \u201cEmployment deniers are the real parasites.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy has intensified as multiple lawyers\u2019 associations demanded a formal apology from the CJI. Critics have also stressed that a constitutional authority must exercise restraint when commenting on vulnerable sections of society. \u201cYou cannot demand dignity for yourself while denying it to millions of unemployed youth,\u201d said activist Saket Gokhale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delh: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has landed in a major controversy after likening unemployed youth to \u201ccockroaches\u201d and \u201cparasites\u201d, remarks that have sparked widespread criticism across the country. According to Kashmir Media Service, the comments were made during a hearing related to the designation of a senior advocate before a bench comprising …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":200733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/05\/CJI.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200734,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200732\/revisions\/200734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}