India, Aug. 8 -- The Supreme Court has held that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is not a "mere post office" when forwarding findings of an in-house inquiry against a high court judge to the President and the Prime Minister, and that the CJI plays a central, moral, and deliberative role in maintaining judicial discipline and institutional credibility.

Delivering a powerful reaffirmation of the CJI's central role in maintaining institutional discipline within the judiciary, the judgment delivered on Thursday in the case of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad high court went beyond the individual controversy to lay down robust legal reasoning on the CJI's authority and responsibility to protect the judiciary's credibility.

Justice Va...