Likening some unemployed youngsters to cockroaches, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Friday said they go on to “become” media, social media and right to information (RTI) activists and start attacking the system. 

The comments came while a bench of CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was pulling up a lawyer for “pursuing” a senior advocate designation. It said there were already “parasites” in society who attack the system and asked the petitioner whether he wanted to join hands with them. 

“The entire world may be eligible to become senior (advocate), but at least you are not entitled,” the bench told the petitioner lawyer. 

A visibly anguished CJI observed that if the Delhi High Court would confer senior advocate designation upon the petitioner, the apex court would set that aside seeing his professional conduct. The CJI also referred to the kind of language used by the petitioner on Facebook. 

“There are already parasites of society who attack the system and you want to join hands with them?” he said. 

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone,” he said.