It's judgement day as Chief Justice DY Chandrachud's term comes to an end
Seldom does a judge hog the limelight in India where the media space is dominated by politicians, filmstars and cricketers. But the Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, who retires today, has proved to be an exception. Often described by young lawyers as the “Rockstar CJI”, Justice DY Chandrachud has been the darling of the media which rarely missed out on reporting proceedings, orders and judgments of his court as also his erudite speeches delivered in India and abroad.
Son of former CJI YV Chandrachud, he did BA (Honours) in Economics from St Stephen’s College in New Delhi and completed LLB from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, before going to the Harvard Law School in the US from where he obtained LLM and Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD) degrees.
Appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court in March 2000 and the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in October 2013, Justice Chandrachud was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016, and appointed the 50th CJI on November 9, 2022.
Unlike his predecessors, who generally kept media at bay, CJI Chandrachud shared information about his personal life. Be it his routine of waking up at 3.30 am to do yoga or following a vegan diet or taking his differently-abled foster daughters Mahi and Priyanka to his courtroom — the media was kept in the loop. He gave interviews to TV channels and attended summits, award functions organised by media houses. The Supreme Court Registry ensured that his speeches and pictures of various events reached every legal journalist.
Issues of interest
During his almost eight-and-a-half-year-long stint in the Supreme Court, including two years as the CJI, Justice Chandrachud has authored many landmark verdicts that will continue to impact the social, political and economic landscape of India and advance individual freedom and human rights.
His verdict on the vexed Ayodhya dispute paved the way for the construction of Ram temple. Upholding the abrogation of Article 370, scrapping electoral bonds, redistribution of wealth and those declaring right to privacy a fundamental right, decriminalising of gay sex and declaring adultery unconstitutional are certainly historic verdicts. He also ruled in favour of abortion rights for unmarried women and upheld the constitutionality of the UP Madarsa Education Act. In the Sabarimala case, he ruled in favour of entry of women into Lord Aiyappa temple in Kerala. He headed the Bench that refused to recognise same-sex marriage in India.
What remained undone
While the CJI has been highlighting the changing demography of judiciary, where an increasing number of women have been joining the district judiciary, the Collegium led by him didn’t recommend even a single woman for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Recognising the concept of marital rape for the purpose of abortion, a Bench led by Justice Chandrachud in September 2022 said a woman becoming pregnant as a result of non-consensual sexual intercourse performed upon her by her husband was entitled to seek medical termination of such pregnancy. However, when it came to deciding petitions seeking to criminalise marital rape, he deferred the hearing to a date beyond his retirement, despite repeated requests from some women lawyers.
CJI Chandrachud also chose not to adjudicate on hundreds of petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, which relaxed norms for the grant of Indian citizenship by naturalisation to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi victims of religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India before December 31, 2014.
Judicial appointments
Before he took over as the CJI, the Supreme Court and the Centre were at loggerheads over judicial appointments, with the former accusing the latter of sitting over the Collegium’s recommendations. However, during his tenure as the CJI, the judicial appointment process got smoothened and quite a good number of judges were appointed to the Supreme Court and various high courts. However, the Centre didn’t appoint senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, who’s an openly gay person, as a judge of the Delhi High Court. Also, the Collegium changed its recommendation to transfer Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
“As the head of the Collegium, it has become clear that he was not able to stand up to the government at all. In many cases like Kripal and Muralidhar, we know how various changes were made in meetings of the Collegium earlier. But, he certainly, in appointments, has made many compromises with the government, so the government appointees have come in. And I fear that this will begin the saffronisation of the Indian judiciary,” said senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan. Senior advocate Sriram Panchu said the CJI suffered from hesitation and was grappling with the government on judicial appointments.
“He should have asserted. He failed in notable cases…. Very visible failure, and there is no excuse. It was the most pro-executive court during his tenure,” said Panchu.
However, Prof Ranbir Singh, former Vice Chancellor of the National Law University, Delhi, said, “I think the CJI has been keeping a very fine balance. And, that was the reason that he could make a lot of appointments as far as the Supreme Court was concerned. And also of judges for the high courts. Except for a few cases, the Collegium’s recommendations were accepted by the government.”
Courting controversies
Justice Chandrachud attracted criticism from various quarters when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a widely publicised Ganpati puja at his residence.
Dhavan termed it as a “photo op”.
Again, many frowned upon his disclosure that he had prayed to God for a solution to the Ayodhya dispute. “Very often we have cases, but we don’t arrive at a solution. Something similar happened during the Ayodhya (dispute) which was in front of me for three months. I sat before the deity and told him he needs to find a solution. Believe me, if you have faith, God will always find a way,” the CJI said. Panchu strongly disapproved of his comment on Ayodhya judgment, terming it “strange”. “I expected better from him,” he said.
The CJI inaugurated the National Judicial Museum and Archive set up in the vacant space where the Old Judges’ Library used to function in the Supreme Court premises. The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) boycotted the event. Former SCBA president and senior advocate Vikas Singh wrote to him raising strong objections to his decision to convert the Old Judges’ Library into a public museum.
Justice Chandrachud wrote the judgment that rejected PILs seeking an independent probe into the death of special CBI judge BH Loya and concluded that he had died of ‘natural causes’. Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter.
Access to Justice
As Patron-in-Chief and Chairperson of the Supreme Court’s e-Committee, CJI Chandrachud led the charge for significant administrative reforms — digitisation of court records and processes as a part of the ongoing e-Courts project and ensured live-streaming of proceedings in all courts and tribunals to allow the common man and lawyers alike to have wider access to judiciary.
Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the courts during the Covid-19 lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible.
According to the Department of Justice, “Since the Covid lockdown started, the district and subordinate courts heard 2,42,18,903 cases while high courts heard 88,86,450 cases (totalling 3.31 crore) till October 31, 2024, using video conferencing. The Supreme Court heard 7,54,443 hearings till June 4, 2024, since the beginning of the lockdown period.”
Also, the Supreme Court judgments are being translated in Hindi and other regional languages. So far, 73,000 translated judgments are available to the public.
Umar Khalid and others
Recently, the CJI said he has granted bail from A to Z (Arnab Goswami to Mohd Zubair) as part of his philosophy. However, asked about Umar Khalid and some Bhima Koregaon case accused languishing in jail, CJI Chandrachud said at a media event, “For the one or two cases you did mention, I can tell you at least a dozen cases, sensitive cases, somebody will call them politically sensitive cases, politically important personalities whose names I don’t think I should be mentioning as the Chief Justice of India where we have dealt with those cases and bail has been granted.
“I am not going to doubt because none of these cases has been dealt with by me, and I would like to respect the fact that my colleagues have dealt with it, and I respect those colleagues for the work they do,” he said.
Noted lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said, “One of the great failures of Justice Chandrachud’s chief justiceship was not to stop the political use of agencies like the ED, the CBI, the NIA and (laws such as) the UAPA and the PMLA and allow the continued incarceration for five-six years of some of our finest human rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon and the Delhi riots cases”.
Fears and anxieties
Of late, CJI Chandrachud had been anxious about his legacy. “As my tenure is coming to an end, my mind has been heavily preoccupied with fears and anxieties about the future and the past. I find myself pondering over questions such as: Did I achieve everything I set out to do? How will history judge my tenure? Could I have done things differently? What legacy will I leave for future generations of judges and legal professionals?” Justice Chandrachud wondered, while speaking at the Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law in Bhutan last month.
“I do know that, over the last two years, I have woken up every morning with a commitment to give the job my fullest and gone to bed with the satisfaction that I served my country with utmost dedication. It is in this that I seek solace. Once you have this sense of faith in your intentions and abilities, it is easier to not get obsessed with the outcome. You begin to value the process and the journey towards these outcomes,” the CJI said.
Judging his tenure
Did CJI Chandrachud display judicial statesmanship and provide the kind of leadership to the judiciary that would ensure its independence and give a direction to constitutional jurisprudence which could guide the nation in decades to come?
Panchu said, “He came with a lot of expectation rising on him. Partly because three previous CJIs could not deliver much. In fact, nobody can deliver to the level of expectation. But in his case, it was disappointment for something he could not do and something he did. It was expected to be two resurrection years (CJI’s tenure) but it didn’t happen.” He, however, praised the CJI’s verdicts on social issues. “On the social front, he has a very good record,” Panchu said, citing his verdict on abortion, adultery and homosexuality. While criticising his verdicts on the Ayodhya dispute and Article 370, Dhavan also praised his judgments on social issues.
Describing CJI Chandrachud as a competent judge who listens to lawyers patiently, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan said, “There is a kind of ego in him and that ego has never left him throughout his career as the CJI. And one of his legacies will be the ego of the CJI triumphing over everything else.”
Dhavan said, “His father (CJI YV Chandrachud) had a very, very tumultuous court. Remember, the court had to recover from the Emergency. There were so many Left-wing judges there. And nevertheless, he made sure that the court was controlled with great dignity.
“But he (CJI DY Chandrachud) has not been able to give leadership to his court in a calm and dignified manner,” Dhavan said, citing the recent examples of judges on Benches led by him criticising him for lack of proper consultation.
However, Prof Ranbir Singh termed the CJI’s tenure as “quite successful. He delivered many landmark verdicts and managed to get judicial appointments back on track”. About controversies, he said, “That generally happens at the end of the tenure.”
Bidding farewell to CJI Chandrachud, SCBA President Kapil Sibal said, “We can criticise any judge because there is nothing called perfection in life. There’s also nothing called eternal truth. Perfection is relative. Truth is relative. You have to judge the man or the judge on the basis of the times in which we live. When we write about Justice Chandrachud, we will discuss his judgments, his manner, his simplicity, his patience — all attributes…one of the greatest judges in this country.”
Important verdicts by the 50th Chief Justice of India
Right to Privacy
Justice Chandrachud was the author of the lead judgment of the nine-judge Constitution Bench, which in 2017, declared right to privacy a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution
Recognising Living Will
“Dignity in the process of dying is as much a part of the right to life under Article 21,” Justice Chandrachud wrote in his separate concurring verdict as part of five-judge Bench,
which in 2018, recognised ‘living will’
Adultery verdict
He was part of the five-judge Bench that in 2018 declared unconstitutional adultery as an offence as it punished only
a man for having sexual relationship with a married woman. He wrote a concurring verdict
Decriminalisation of gay sex
Justice Chandrachud was part of the historic verdict by a five-judge Constitution Bench, which in 2018, decriminalised gay sex in India. He wrote a concurring verdict
Ayodhya Dispute
He was part of the 2019 ‘consensus verdict’ by a five-judge Bench that paved the way for the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya
Demolition of Noida Towers
A Bench led by him in 2021ordered the demolition of Supertech’s 40-storey Emerald Court twin towers in
Sector 93-A of Noida for violation of building laws
Abortion Rights for Women
A three-judge Bench led by him in 2022 extended abortion rights to unmarried women. It also said that a married woman can seek medical termination of pregnancy if it was a result of non-consensual sex by her husband
Abrogation of Article 370
A five-judge Constitution Bench led by him in 2023 upheld the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution
Scrapping Electoral Bonds
A Constitution Bench led by him declared unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme that allowed individuals and companies to make unlimited anonymous donations to political parties
Redistribution of Wealth
A nine-judge Constitution Bench led by him ruled that not all private properties can be taken over by the State and courts should not endorse a particular economic ideology
UP Madarsa Act
A Bench led by him upheld the validity of the UP Madarsa Education Act. It said minority institutions can impart secular education without destroying their minority character
AMU Minority Status
A seven-judge Bench led by him overruled the 1967 verdict in S Azeez Basha case, paving the way for Aligarh Muslim University to be declared minority institution
