New Delhi: It’s the flavour of the season – discussing outgoing CJI DY Chandrachud’s legacy. So disclaimers flowed at a Delhi event that explored the various facets of the retiring Chief Justice’s personality. The discussion wasn’t focused on DYC bashing or extolling his virtues, organisers stressed early on. It was a mature, if somewhat painful, admission that there’s no perfect judge out there.
‘The Great Cases of CJI DY Chandrachud: An Appraisal of his Judicial Legacy’, held at New Delhi’s India International Centre on 8 November and organised by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, was attended by lawyers, law students and the who’s who of the legal world.
“He is behind a very complex legacy. A lot is known about his personal life, much more than many other judges,” said Arghya Sengupta, founder and research director of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. He was joined by former Bombay High Court judge RC Chavan, senior Supreme Court advocate Raju Ramachandran, and chief editor of India Justice Report Maja Daruwala. In a nod to inclusivity, a sign language interpreter translated all that was being spoken on stage.
In his eight-year tenure in the Supreme Court, Chandrachud has written 597 judgments, the most among his predecessors and fellow judges. According to Vidhi, he has been part of 1,211 benches, which include the Ayodhya title dispute, the Article 370 abrogation case, and the marriage equality litigation.
But Chandrachud has, toward the end of his tenure, invited significant controversy— particularly over his statements in the context of Ayodhya, and his invitation to PM Narendra Modi for Ganesh Puja.
“I have a soft corner for him, which does not mean that he has not done things that have disappointed me. These are matters of criticism but I have known him to be a kind-hearted humanist,” said Raju Ramachandran while referring to the controversies surrounding Chandrachud. “The standards he has set as a judge are noteworthy,” said Ramachandran, adding that Chandrachud redefined the structuring and writing of judgments “in terms of logic, in terms of analysis, in terms of lucidity, and in terms of a user-friendly reading.”
The burden of great expectations
DY Chandrachud is the son of YV Chandrachud, India’s longest-serving Chief Justice who served from 1978 to 1985. YV Chandrachud, in fact, was popularly known as ‘iron hands’ because he would never let anything slip past him.
“From day one, people looked at him with great expectations and naturally there was a huge pressure on him to perform,” said RC Chavan, Chandrachud’s former colleague at Bombay High Court. Later Chavan was the vice chairperson of the e-committee of the Supreme Court, working very closely with Chandrachud.
Junior Chandrachud was looked upon as the future CJI from day one and he was treated as such in the Bombay High Court. “Naturally he was extremely careful,” said Chavan, adding that from the day he was appointed as a judge at the Bombay High Court, it seemed that he was destined to be the Chief Justice of India.
According to Chavan, while at the high court, Chandrachud sat mostly with chief justices and senior judges. They were eager to heed his views because they were aware of his potential.
In his two-year tenure as CJI, Chandrachud oversaw the appointment of over 260 high court judges, said Chavan. “This is not a joke. For each appointment, the chief justice has to spend a lot of time.” Chandrachud did all this apart from writing his judgements, Chavan added.
A short presentation displayed Justice DY Chandrachud’s tenure in numbers.
He was in office for 732 days, and upon assuming charge, inherited a backlog of 69,781 cases. Since then, there has been an 18 per cent increase in pendency, leading to an all-time high of 82,500 cases. “Increasing pendency doesn’t mean that people have lost faith in the system. It shows that public confidence in the system is increasing,” said Chavan.
As the CJI, Chandrachud was part of 189 benches out of which he authored judgments in 92 cases. This is significantly higher than his predecessors.
Also read: Aadhaar to Ayodhya, DY Chandrachud confuses fans, critics. The New Right Liberal or Daddy?
Perfect judges don’t exist
On 21 October, Justice Chandrachud emphasised faith in God and said “he prayed for a solution” to the Ayodhya dispute. The statement sparked criticism
What happened to the “destiny’s child” here, Arghya Sengupta asked Ramachandran. Why is it that Chandrachud’s talk went in one direction and his order the other way? To this, Ramachandran had a clever answer.
“We are looking for the perfect judge. Now, the perfect judge doesn’t exist as the perfect lawyer, perfect journalist, perfect teacher doesn’t exist,” said Ramachandran, adding that it is our own inadequacies, our own imperfections, that make us want to have a hero.
Maja Daruwala, however, did not concur with Ramachandran. “We are all imperfect. Sure we are. If you are Maja Daruwala and imperfect it’s okay. But if you are the chief justice you can’t hide behind the excuse of being imperfect,” she said as the audience burst into laughter.
When the session opened for audience questions, Supreme Court lawyer Ejaz Maqbool shared his experience working on the Babri Masjid case.
“We had about one lakh pages of translations and I used to bring these files in five cars. Today, thanks to Chief Justice Chandrachud, I only brought my iPad to the court,” said Maqbool, adding that Chandrachud revolutionised court proceedings through digitisation.
While CJI Chandrachud is set to retire on 10 November, 8 November was his last working day.
In his farewell speech, Chandrachud said he was among “the most trolled individuals and judges” across the system. “My shoulders are broad enough to accept all the criticism that we have faced,” he had said.
Quoting former PM Manmohan Singh’s famous line, “History will be kinder to me”, Ramachandran said that the same would be said about Chandrachud a few years down the line. “He will rank as one of the finest judges of the Supreme Court.”
Ramachandran hit back at Chandrachud critics with lyrics from an old Hindi song: “Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna (People will always talk, it’s in their nature).”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)