November 5, 2024
📰 FEATURE STORY
What is Justice DY Chandrachud’s legacy?
Being the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is a massive responsibility. The CJI is the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. They’re also called the ‘Master of the Roster’ and the “first among equals.” The job has grown and evolved over time but has remained the same at its core. The words spoken by the CJI are important and carry enormous weight.
The outgoing CJI, DY Chandrachud, knows this all too well. At JSW Law School’s convocation ceremony in Bhutan, he spoke of being preoccupied with the future and the past. “What legacy will I leave for future generations of judges and legal professionals?”, he asked. He has been a part of important cases where his judgments will have ripple effects.
Context
The Supreme Court has come under the spotlight over the past several years, perhaps more so than ever. CJI Chandrachud has said he wanted to make it the ‘people’s court’. He also said that doesn’t mean it should become the Opposition in Parliament. He’s aware that people’s view of the Supreme Court is good when it decides in their favour and is denigrated when the opposite happens.
For CJI Chandrachud, law is in his blood. His grandfather and uncle were lawyers. His father was the 16th and longest-serving Chief Justice of India. Following his education at St Stephen’s College, New Delhi and the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, he studied at Harvard Law School, where he obtained an LLM degree and a Doctorate in Juridical Sciences. He also received the Joseph H. Beale Prize, awarded to the student who tops the Conflict of Laws course.
His legal career began as a senior advocate in the Bombay High Court. He then served as the additional solicitor general of India from 1998 till his appointment as permanent Judge of the Bombay High Court in 2000. He was then moved to the Allahabad High Court as its Chief Justice and, in 2016, was elevated to the Supreme Court.
In 2022, he took oath as the 50th CJI, succeeding Justice Uday Umesh Lalit. He’s the only son who served the position once held by his father. Some of his judgments showed the generation gap between him and his father. In the 2017 right-to-privacy case, he overturned his father’s “flawed” verdict, often called the “Emergency verdict” that upheld the Emergency Proclamation by Indira Gandhi.
The following year, he again dissented from his father’s 33-year-old verdict on the constitutional validity of section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that declared adultery provision as unconstitutional.
When he took oath, the judiciary was in the spotlight. Important cases like the abrogation of Article 370, the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the electoral bonds scheme were ahead of him. They all had political and electoral ramifications. The judiciary was also buckling due to the massive backlog of cases, inadequate infrastructure, and delays in the delivery of justice.
So, how did CJI Chandrachud perform?
VIEW: Admirable tenure
If history is written through the lens of landmark judgments, then DY Chandrachud will feature prominently. His tenure has been marked by the needle moving on multiple items. He’s been busy – 18 constitution bench decisions last year and 12 more before retirement. The Collegium led by him elevated 17 of the sitting 33 judges. He hasn’t been shy of advocating for technology to upgrade the Court through improvements in e-filings, paperless submissions, and live streams from courtrooms.
Concerning constitutional jurisprudence in India, Justice Chandrachud has had an enormous impact in three areas – the right to privacy, free speech, and reservation. He has defined privacy in clear and broad terms. Even when the Supreme Court upheld most of the Aadhaar Act and struck down parts of it, the bench cited his privacy judgment. The privacy verdict provided an enduring basis to strike down Section 377 of the IPC on homosexuality.
When you look at some of his landmark judgments, namely on privacy rights and the decriminalisation of homosexuality, CJI Chandrachud has been able to advance the judiciary independently of familial influence. He hasn’t continued his father’s legacy in that sense, despite critics focusing on familial associations rather than his merit-based achievements.
COUNTERVIEW: Complicated, to say the least
The promise didn’t translate to performance. It’s perhaps the best way to sum up Chandrachud’s legacy. He has spoken rightly about gender discrimination, but none of the judges elevated to the Supreme Court by his Collegium are women. Cases concerning women’s rights, like the challenge to triple talaq and the restitution of conjugal rights, were frequently listed during his tenure but not taken up. The marital rape exception case was only heard for a day, and the Court decided there wasn’t enough time before his retirement, so a new bench will be formed.
In the marriage equality case, the speed with which he announced the formation of the Constitution Bench led many to think the outcome was a foregone conclusion. His minority opinion showed a deep understanding of the institution of marriage and its history in India. However, it acknowledged there was no constitutional right to marry in India. The Ayodhya verdict is another example. He spoke of secularism and the tragedy of Babri Masjid’s demolition. In the end, it only meant Hindus had an inherent right to the land, and Muslims had to show how they got it.
Some of Chandrachud’s actions have bewildered many. He sometimes succumbed to the allure of public displays. The photo of him praying with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was unacceptable. When it came to opposing some of the government’s worst tendencies, his independence and autonomy were missing. His pontification about legacy is a self-assumed privilege. Some of the changes he’s made haven’t been met with enthusiasm. The new Lady Justice statue is a notable example. Some of the symbolic changes were met with dismay by the Supreme Court Bar Association since they were introduced without any consultations.
Reference Links:
- Chief Justice Chandrachud ahead of retirement: How will history judge my tenure – India Today
- Son of CJI, DY Chandrachud becomes India’s 50th Chief Justice: Same position, different challenges – India Today
- The end of the Chandrachud era – Supreme Court Observer
- “Judicial Merit, Familial Legacy: How CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjeev Khanna Shape India’s Legal Future” – Organiser
- Making sense of DY Chandrachud’s legacy isn’t easy. It’s complicated, confounding – The Print
- A Chief Justice Guided by God and a Legacy Besmirched – The Wire
- Taking Stock of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s Legacy – The Wire
What is your opinion on this?
(Only subscribers can participate in polls)
a) Chief Justice DY Chandrachud’s legacy is good.
b) Chief Justice DY Chandrachud’s legacy is not good.
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