New Delhi, Jan. 2: Chief Justice of India-designate K.G. Balakrishnan, who will become the first Dalit to head the judiciary on January 14, today refrained from giving his personal views on reservation which, he felt, was a “sensitive issue in India”.

“Judges speak through judgments,’’ he said while refusing to take questions on the need to increase the representation of people from the backward classes in the judiciary.

Justice Balakrishnan was part of a Constitution bench that recently said creamy layers among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should not be given the benefit.

On the mode of appointment of judges, he said the primacy of judiciary in the appointment of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court had to be maintained. “Who can understand judges better than judges?” Balakrishnan said.