Delay in Ayodhya hearing was not deliberate, says CJI-designate SA Bobde

In an interview with ThePrint, Justice Bobde, who will be sworn in as CJI on 18 November, says the only problem afflicting Indian judiciary is high number of vacancies.

Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra presents the warrant of appointment to Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde in New Delhi | PTI Photo

New Delhi: The next Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde, who is part of the five-judge Constitution bench hearing the Ayodhya dispute, has said that the delay in the hearing was not “deliberate”.

Justice Bobde, who will take oath as the 47th CJI on 18 November, told ThePrint during an interview that there were many other issues that delayed the Ayodhya hearings. 

The appeals by Hindu and Muslim parties over the ownership of the 2.77-acre land at the centre of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute were in cold storage in the Supreme Court for over eight years. However, Justice Bobde said the delay could not have been avoided. 

“There were several problems at different stages, (such as the) unavailability of transcripts. I don’t think the delay was deliberate… and then benches could not be formed on time,” he said. 

The Nagpur-born Justice Bobde, currently the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, will remain in office for 18 months, and is set to retire on 23 April 2021.

Transparency of the collegium

Bobde is currently part of the five-judge Supreme Court collegium, and will become its head as he takes over as CJI.

The collegium has been questioned for its opacity in appointments to the higher judiciary — with recent examples being the transfer and subsequent resignation of Madras High Court Chief Justice V.K. Tahilramani, or the pending appointment of Justice Akil Kureshi as the Chief Justice of the Tripura HC — but it has often cited judges’ privacy as a reason for not disclosing the reasons for its decisions.

Asked about whether the privacy of the judges should take precedence over transparency, Bobde said both are important.

“I think privacy and transparency is something in which balance needs to be struck. There can’t be a general statement about it,” he said.

Vacancies the only problem

After the historic January 2018 press conference by four senior judges of the Supreme Court, questions were raised on bench allocation and case listings. This was followed by a tussle between the collegium and the central government over appointments.

However, according to Bobde, there are no problems with judiciary at the moment, except “vacancies”.

“There are no problems with the judiciary, the only thing that’s affecting (it) are the vacancies, which we aim to resolve in the coming few months,” he said, declining to comment on whether the public perception of the judiciary needs to be improved.

‘Judges transcend their personal beliefs’

Apart from delivering landmark verdicts in the Aadhaar, Right to Privacy and Right to Life cases, Bobde is also known to stand for not disturbing the sanctity of customs and traditions.

In 2017, Justices Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao, had upheld the Karnataka government’s ban on a book by guru Maate Mahadevi, on the grounds that it outraged the religious feelings of Lord Basavanna’s followers.

However, Bobde insisted that when hearing a case, “judges always transcend their personal convictions and beliefs”.

Separate bench for appeals

In 2017, a petition was filed in the apex court for the establishment of a different bench solely to handle appeals, such as the Ayodhya or Sabarimala cases.

Asked for his views on that, Justice Bobde said he was “not aware of the subject”.