CJI Referred to Youngsters as Cockroaches During a Hearing

On May 15, 2026, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, presiding over a Supreme Court bench, described unemployed young Indians as ‘like cockroaches’ who, failing to find jobs, turn to social media, journalism, and RTI activism to ‘attack the system.’ He called such individuals ‘parasites of society.’ These were not words spoken by a politician at an election rally or by a television anchor in prime-time fury. They were spoken, on the record, by the occupant of the highest judicial office in the Republic of India, the officer constitutionally charged with being the final guardian of every citizen’s dignity.