Getty Images
Justice Chandrachud retired as the 50th Chief Justice of India on Sunday.
How will history judge my mandate?
It's a question that Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud, who retired as the 50th Chief Justice of India on Sunday, asked just weeks before his term ended.
Justice Chandrachud said his mind was “heavily preoccupied with fears and anxieties about the future and the past”.
“I ask myself: Did I achieve everything I set out to do? How will history judge my mandate? Could I have done things differently? What legacy will I leave to future generations of judges and legal professionals? he said.
This introspection has come at a time when many people in India are also debating the legacy he leaves behind.
Justice Chandrachud served as a judge of the top court for over eight years and as Chief Justice for the last two years. He presided over one of the most powerful supreme courts in the world, with jurisdiction over India's 1.4 billion citizens.
The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal, the final interpreter of the Constitution and its judgments, which are binding on all other courts in India, regularly make the news – even if judges rarely do so.
But Justice Chandrachud, sometimes described as India's “first celebrity judge” and a “rockstar judge”, regularly makes headlines.
PTI
A viral video recently showed Justice Chandrachud praying at his home with Prime Minister Modi during a Hindu religious festival.
According to Arghya Sengupta of the Vidhi Center For Legal Policy, the jurist was India's most prolific chief justice, having written 93 judgments – more than his last four predecessors combined – including some on issues of momentous importance. It has also made huge progress in digitizing and live streaming court hearings, making them more accessible to citizens.
But some recent reporting has also been unflattering, with critics saying he has not been assertive enough and his tenure has been disappointing.
The Harvard-educated judge has many firsts to his credit: He was the youngest to head a high court, and his two-year tenure was the longest for a chief justice in more than a decade. He is also the only chief justice whose father also held the position.
During his years on the Supreme Court, he gained a reputation as a progressive and liberal judge, known for his nuanced and thoughtful judgments on issues of liberty, free speech, gender and LGBT rights.
He was part of the landmark decisions that decriminalized homosexuality and allowed menstruating women to enter the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala. His statements on the right to privacy and the right to dissent have been widely praised.
Thus, his elevation to the post of Supreme Justice of India in November 2022 was welcomed by senior lawyers, activists and citizens, with many of them expressing “a fervent hope that under his leadership, the Court will achieve higher peaks.”
It was a time when India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was preparing to secure a third term in the 2024 general elections.
Opposition parties, activists and parts of the press accused the government of targeting them, while international human rights organizations said Indian democracy was under threat.
Although the government denied any wrongdoing, many Indian academics, human rights activists and popular opposition leaders ended up in prison and the country continued to slide in the global rankings for freedom of speech. press. (The government has always rejected such assessments, saying they are biased against India.)
Getty Images
Critics say the former chief justice – seen here with Home Minister Amit Shah – was not assertive enough with the government
Senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal says Justice Chandrachud's appointment came at “a crucial time as some of the last chief justices had left under a cloud of blackheads and the post had been denigrated by serious allegations”.
“So we believed that Justice Chandrachud would use his erudition and brilliant mind to do a lot of good for the citizens. But it was disappointing,” she said.
Chander Uday Singh, senior advocate at the Supreme Court, says his record is “mixed”.
“In his judgments, he brilliantly articulated the law that could serve as precedent for future cases. But whenever the state was heavily invested in an issue, it failed to hold power to account, so the state got away with what it set out to do.
For example, he points out that the court struck down a government plan allowing people to make anonymous donations to political parties, calling it unconstitutional and illegal. “But then he didn’t hold anyone accountable for this illegality.”
Similarly, when it came to a political crisis in the western state of Maharashtra or the power struggle between Delhi and the federal government, his judgments tended to favor the government, adds -he.
“It was hoped that thanks to his judgments, he would fix things in a country led by a strong majority government. But he didn't succeed. »
EPA
A liberal judge, Justice Chandrachud is known for his nuanced and thoughtful judgments on gender and LGBT rights.
Several prominent lawyers have also criticized Justice Chandrachud for his role as a “master of the list” in failing to effectively prevent the prolonged incarceration of political prisoners – leading to the death of some of them without ever securing release. on bail. This happened despite Justice Chandrachud saying bail should be the norm and not the exception.
And as he neared his retirement, Justice Chandrachud also made headlines for what he had done not in court, but outside it.
In September, a viral video showed him praying at home with Prime Minister Modi during a Hindu religious festival.
Ms Jaiswal said that by posting the photo, “a message was being sent that the chief justice is close to the prime minister”. Lawyers, former judges, opposition politicians and many citizens also criticized him, saying that “the presence of a politician at a private event erodes the perception of impartiality of the judiciary.”
Another round of criticism greeted Justice Chandrachud's comment last month when he said he had asked God for a solution to the thorny dispute between the Babri mosque and the Ram temple. “I sat before the deity and told him he had to find a solution and he gave it to me,” he said.
The comment sparked a storm of criticism, which is not entirely unexpected given that the mosque-temple conflict is one of the most controversial and religiously polarizing issues in modern India.
The mosque was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992. A five-judge court, including Justice Chandrachud, ruled in 2019 that the demolition was illegal, but still gave the disputed land to Hindus and a separate site for construction of the mosque. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated a grand new temple at the site, fulfilling a long-standing promise of his party.
It is therefore not surprising that Justice Chandrachud's comment, seen by many as religious, was widely criticized.
Anjana Prakash, a retired High Court judge, told HW News that his comment was “dramatic, cinematic and laughable and brought down the standard of the justice system.”
“A judge must decide cases according to the principles of law. Where does God intervene in judgment? Besides, people have different gods. What if a judge of another faith had said that, would the reaction be the same? she asked.
Justice Prakash and other critics questioned whether he was approaching the government for a post-retirement assignment.
In the days leading up to his retirement, Justice Chandrachud responded to some criticism during his interactions with the media.
“Separation of powers does not mean antagonistic relations between the executive and the judiciary, it does not mean that they cannot meet,” he said at an event organized by the Indian Express newspaper , adding that such meetings were not used “to cut deals.”
“The ultimate proof of our good conduct lies in the writings – in our judgments. Is this in accordance with the constitution or not?
Justice Chandrachud said his comment about seeking divine guidance was because “I am a person of faith” and “imputing motives on judges is not fair.”
He added that the courts were facing pressure “from lobbies and pressure groups” and would welcome a decision critical of the government, but if it ruled in favor of the government, they would question its independence.
While bidding farewell on Friday, the outgoing chief justice said he may be the most trolled judge in India, but his “shoulders are broad enough to take all the criticism”.
And this weekend he told the Times of India that he believed he had “left the system in better shape than I found it.”
“I retire with a feeling of satisfaction,” he said.
Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
