CJI DY Chandrachud, Retired Justice Krishna Iyer, And Remarks Made In 'Bad Taste'

In a rather unprecedented move, the outgoing Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, found it appropriate to make personal remarks on the ideology of a retired top court judge, Justice VR Krishna Iyer. While pronouncing the judgment in the property redistribution case, CJI Chandrachud remarked that Justice Iyer's verdict in the 1978 Ranganatha case was influenced by a particular school of economic thought, hinting at Justice Iyer's Marxist and socialist inclinations.The CJI was referring to Justice Iyer's minority ruling in the Ranganatha case, whereby it was held that all private properties were open for redistribution to subserve the common good of the people. The doctrinal error in the Krishna Iyer approach postulated a rigid economic theory, which advocates for greater state control over private resources as the exclusive basis for constitutional governance, according to the CJI. .Justice Krishna Iyer cited Karl Marx in his judgment to observe that taking over large conglomerations of land is necessary to make the directive principles of state policy a 'constitutional reality'.Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud."Though individual judges write judgments, they deliver them on behalf of the court," senior counsel Sanjay Hegde told NDTV Profit. "As counsel, we are sometimes rebuked for referring to a judgment as that of justice X or judge Y.""Hence, instead of differing or overruling an earlier series of judgments of the court, the CJI seems to have attributed them to a single author, Justice Krishna Iyer," Hegde said.Hegde added that while we loosely attribute certain doctrines with certain judges, all judgments are that of the court and not of an individual judicial personality.It is "really sad" that personal comments were made on the philosophy or the leanings of a retired justice, according to senior counsel Sanjoy Ghose."We must not forget that the top court sets precedents and the precedent set today will come back to bite the same people who are authoring judgments on the basis of whatever philosophy they find dear to them," Ghose said..The written text of the judgment presents a certain anomaly. Justice BV Nagarathna, while calling out CJI DY Chandrachud for his remarks on Justice Iyer's philosophy, underscores a startling observation that does not feature in the CJI's version of the judgment.The observation refers to Justice Iyer's opinion in the Ranganatha verdict as doing a "disservice to the broad and flexible spirit of the Constitution".Senior counsel Vikas Singh said the observation in question must have been there in CJI Chandrachud's draft when it was forwarded to Justice Nagarathna and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia. It was "completely uncharitable" on the CJI's part in naming a judge in "bad taste". Judgments are decisions of the court and not of a particular judge, Singh remarked.Justice Nagarathna penned an opinion that partially concurred with that of the CJI's. However, she made a conscious effort to call out his remarks on Justice Iyer's verdict from nearly 50 years ago as "unwarranted and unjustified"..It is a matter of concern as to how the judicial brethren of posterity view the judgments of the brethren of the past, possibly by losing sight of the times in which the latter discharged their duties and the socio-economic policies that were pursued by the state and formed part of the constitutional culture during those times.Justice BV Nagarathna.Justice Nagarathna said that merely because of the paradigm shift in the economic policies of the state towards globalisation, liberalisation, and privatisation, cannot result in branding the judges of the top court of the yesteryears "as doing a disservice to the Constitution".Justice Dhulia, the lone dissenter in the nine-judge bench verdict, too, strongly disapproved of the remarks made on Justice Krishna Iyer's ideology. "This criticism is harsh, and could have been avoided," he said.Justice Dhulia said that Justice Iyer's ideology, which was visible through his judgment that has been overruled, consisted of strong humanist principles of fairness and equity. He added that the long body of his judgment is not just a reflection of their perspicacious intellect, but more importantly of their empathy for the people, as human beings were at the centre of their judicial philosophy..CJI D.Y. Chandrachud: Judges Uphold Independence In Judiciary, Support Government Administratively

CJI DY Chandrachud, Retired Justice Krishna Iyer, And Remarks Made In 'Bad Taste'

The bar and the bench alike have expressed concerns regarding the remarks made by the chief justice of India.

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