How will India remember Chief Justice Chandrachud? Know his/her achievements, historical decisions, everything

New Delhi: After this, the tenure of the 50th Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud lasted for more than two years. During this period, he/she gave many important decisions, in some he/she received praise and in some he/she had to face criticism. At the beginning of his/her tenure, people of right wing ideology were his/her staunch critics. However, now by the end of the tenure the situation has changed. Till now, the same people who were criticizing him/her were seen standing in his/her defence. A look at the tenure of CJI Chandrachud and his/her important decisions.

A look at the tenure of CJI Chandrachud

Justice Chandrachud is one of the 14 Chief Justices of India who have had a tenure of two years or more. Was this a lost opportunity for them? Or were the expectations placed on him/her too high, given that he/she is part of a judicial system that is inefficient, in most cases out of date, and whose credibility is extremely low?

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Chandrachud gave these important decisions

Before becoming the Chief Justice, the expectations from the judgments given by Justice Chandrachud had increased a lot. But many people were disappointed with him/her as CJI, there were some cases which he/she ignored, and his/her conduct and statements outside the court are also important in this. First, let’s look at the judgments that made Justice Chandrachud a favorite of liberals:

ADM Jabalpur case: Justice DY Chandrachud was part of the bench that overturned a judgment delivered by a bench headed by his/her father YV Chandrachud in 1976. The 1976 decision, popularly known as the ADM Jabalpur case. In this, people arrested during the Emergency were stopped from seeking judicial help. In August 2017, a bench of nine judges overturned the 1976 decision, calling it ‘seriously flawed’. Justice Chandrachud wrote, ‘Life and personal liberty are indispensable to human existence. They create rights under natural law.’

Adultery Law: Justice Chandrachud was part of the bench that struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code on adultery, holding that a woman cannot be considered the ‘property’ of her husband. Section 497 defines adultery as ‘having sexual intercourse with the wife of a person without her consent or knowledge’. However, women were exempted from prosecution under this section.

Homosexuality: In his/her judgment decriminalizing homosexual activity between two adults, Justice Chandrachud said the provision was an ‘outdated and colonial law’ that violates people’s fundamental rights to life and privacy.

Love Jihad: Justice Chandrachud was part of the bench that overturned the High Court’s decision in the ‘Love Jihad’ case. The High Court had handed over the investigation of the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). While delivering the judgement, he/she said that how a woman wants to live her life is entirely her own decision.

Aadhar card : his/her only dissenting judgment in the Aadhaar Act case struck down the Act in its entirety saying that the Aadhaar program since 2009 suffers from constitutional flaws and violation of fundamental rights.

Bhima-Koregaon violence: In his/her only dissenting judgment in the Bhima-Koregaon case, Justice Chandrachud had said, ‘The lofty orders in judicial pronouncements can have no meaning for the citizen unless the constitutional pursuit of human liberty translates into securing justice for those individuals. Those whose freedom is in danger may not happen.

Questions raised on some decisions

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is also the ‘master of the roster’, which means he/she assigns cases to other judges. In December last year, the then second most senior judge, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, found that some cases had been removed from his/her list of cases. One of the cases snatched from him/her was regarding the Central Government’s lack of action on appointments, promotions and transfers of judges recommended by the collegium.

When the roster dispute came into discussion

The bench of Justice Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia had been hearing the case for a few months and was reprimanding the government in almost every hearing. In fact, many government notifications approving collegium proposals were issued only after warnings were given in these hearings. On December 5, 2023, when the case was scheduled to be heard again, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan and Justice Kaul expressed surprise that the case had been removed from the latter’s list of cases. The following conversations reportedly took place in the courtroom:

Justice Kaul: ‘I will just say one thing. I have not removed the case.
Prashant Bhushan: ‘Sir you should seek clarification from the registry.’
Justice Kaul: ‘I am sure the Chief Justice is aware of this.’
Prashant Bhushan: ‘Very strange. There is a judicial order to list it today.
Justice Kaul: ‘Yesterday I found that it had been removed. I checked.
Prashant Bhushan: ‘Very unusual.’
Justice Kaul: ‘Some things are better unsaid. I clarify that it is not that I have dropped the case or that I am not ready to take the case.

In December 2023, a report drew attention suggesting a violation of the Supreme Court’s own rules in assigning politically sensitive cases to a special judge’s bench.

According to the report, these cases were:

– Bail petition of Umar Khalid.
– Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967 [अक्सर विपक्षी नेताओं को निशाना बनाने के लिए इस्तेमाल किया जाता है] Petitions challenging the provisions of.
– Petitions challenging quashing of a fresh investigation against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami for his/her alleged involvement in the highway tender scam.
– Two petitions related to the skill development scam in which former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is a co-accused.
– A petition related to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation in the disproportionate assets case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
– Medical bail plea filed by jailed Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji.
– Bail plea of ​​co-accused Mahesh Raut in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Made headlines regarding temple visit

A Chief Justice has every right to visit places of worship of his/her choice, even as there is nothing in the Code of Conduct for High Judicial Officers that prevents him/her from doing so. But it is up to the discretion of each judge to decide whether these visits should be of personal nature or accompanied by publicity. Justice Chandrachud’s temple visits remained a topic of discussion. he/she visited famous temples like Dwarkadhish Temple (Gujarat), Ram Temple (Ayodhya), Jagannath Puri Temple (Odisha), Pashupatinath Temple (Nepal), and Tirupati Temple (Andhra Pradesh) during his/her tenure. There was a lot of publicity regarding these trips.

When PM Modi reached CJI’s house during Ganesh Puja.

Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited to attend the Ganpati Aarti at the official residence of the CJI during the 10-day Ganesh Utsav. Once again, the cameras followed, raising questions from many political parties and leaders.

Achievements as CJI

It is not that Justice Chandrachud’s tenure of two years and one day has been completely in question. he/she gave two such decisions during this period, which were truly unique. Being part of a five-judge bench, he/she struck down the electoral bond scheme of the central government. Electoral bonds allowed individuals and businesses to donate money to political parties anonymously. The bench directed the State Bank of India and the Election Commission to provide details of all donations received by political parties. After this, State Bank of India had to make these disclosures even before the voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Many important decisions were announced

A seven-judge bench headed by Justice Chandrachud overturned a more than 25-year-old judgment that had granted immunity to MPs and MLAs from prosecution for taking bribes. If the inducement offered was related to any work done by him/her inside the Parliament or the State Assembly.

Discussion intensifies on some decisions

There were also some cases where the CJI could have taken a big decision, or he/she was expected to do something else, but he/she did not. Justice Chandrachud heard the case where the presiding officer in the Chandigarh mayoral elections was captured on camera tampering with the ballot paper. The CJI bench made strong remarks against the presiding officer, overturning his/her decision declaring the BJP candidate victorious. Criminal action was proposed against him/her, but it did not take the matter to its logical end.

Important decisions given on money bills

On three separate occasions between 2023 and 2024, Justice Chandrachud was requested to constitute a bench of seven judges to decide the issue of the government passing extremely important and far-reaching legislation/amendments in the form of Money Bills. Do it. The government did this to bypass the Rajya Sabha, where it did not have a majority. Some of the bills passed using this short-cut included the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Electoral Bond Scheme and amendments to Aadhaar. However, the CJI said that he/she would constitute a bench to decide the issue, but he/she has not yet notified the bench.

A Constitution bench headed by the CJI approved the steps taken by the Central Government and the President of India to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Supreme Court bench left the central government’s case to divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two parts and convert each into a union territory. The bench accepted the government’s statement that statehood would soon be restored.

The tenure was full of ups and downs

In May last year, a five-judge bench headed by Justice Chandrachud had declared every step taken by the Maharashtra Governor and the Assembly Speaker as illegal until the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray resigned. However, the bench refused to pass any order on the disqualification petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray’s side against those who rebelled against his/her government. Overall, Justice DY Chandrachud’s tenure was full of ups and downs. On one hand he/she gave many historic decisions, while on the other hand he/she also remained involved in some controversies. his/her successor will have to be prepared to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and meet the challenges facing the country.