Two judges are up on stage. One of them is retiring as Chief Justice of India. The other will step in his shoes. A picture of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud hugging his successor Justice Sanjiv Khanna thrilled the photographers and those around them. Years later, the hug will be an exercise in nostalgia.

Chief Justice Chandrachud, who overturned two verdicts by his father and former Chief Justice YV Chandrachud while he helmed the top post, will demit office on November 10. Justice Khanna will take charge on Monday, November 11.

“He has made my task easy and tough. Easy because of the revolutions ushered in and tough because I cannot walk up to him. He will be sorely missed,” said Chief Justice-designate Khanna, who will have a tenure of a little over six months and would demit office on May 13, 2025.

Justice Khanna did not mention to forget the “youthful looks” of the outgoing Chief Justice.

“His youthfulness is not known here only but also abroad. In Australia, there were so many who came to me and asked what his age was,” said Justice Khanna, who is the nephew of former Supreme Court judge HR Khanna.

In November 2022, Chief Justice Chandrachud claimed that he is an “imposter” in the “youthful looks” department.  

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, on his last working day as 50th head of the Indian judiciary on Friday, said there was no greater feeling than being able to serve those in need and people he never knew or met.

“I won’t be able to deliver justice from tomorrow, but I am content,” he said.

Lawyers and members of the bar gathered to honour the outgoing Chief Justice, describing him as “a rock star” of the judiciary.

New Delhi:

Outgoing Chief Justice DY Chandrachud – who demits office today – took a gentle dig at his many trolls, declaring, “I am, probably, one of the most trolled judges… and, in a lighter vein, am wondering what will happen from Monday?! All those who trolled me will be unemployed!”

The exiting Chief Justice was, indeed, the subject of several troll attacks during his time in office, including a recent experience when he was criticised for shifting in his seat, to alleviate pain in his back. He said he had been subject to “vicious abuse… trolling (and) the knives were out”.

“But my shoulders are broad enough…” he chuckled.

Chief Justice Chandrachud, who assumed office on November 9, 2022, bid farewell to his position today after his two-year term ended. As he did so, he looked back on his period in office, during which he delivered several landmark verdicts, including challenges to the government scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the electoral bonds case.

The high-profile and tension-filled nature of the job, however, never tainted his friendly relationships with fellow judges, he said. “We took difficult decisions many times but there was never any difference of opinion between us (and) all meetings were held with laughter and happiness. The most important thing was – we were not there with personal agendas…”

“We were there to serve the interests of the institution…” he said.

He cited the example of a Dalit student whose father, a daily wage labourer failed, by the narrowest of margins, to meet the deadline to pay fees to secure admission for his son in the prestigious IIT in Dhanbad in Jharkhand. The institution declared the son’s seat forfeit.

For three months, the father did the rounds of the SC/ST Commission and the Jharkhand and Madras High Courts, and then he approached the Supreme Court. A bench led by the outgoing Chief Justice promptly ordered the institute to admit the boy in the class he had been offered.

The petitioner’s counsel told the court the student’s father earns Rs 450 daily and the demand of paying Rs 17,500 at short notice was obviously a difficult proposition. “All the best. Achha kariye (Do well),” the Chief Justice told the boy from Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.

Such incidents, he said today, highlight the importance of being open to new knowledge, situations, and cases, a luxury not afforded to lawyers, who can decide to refuse some cases.

“The importance of the Bar is also known only then… every day we learn new knowledge and new methods,” the outgoing Chief Justice said, thinking back to his Allahabad High Court days.

The exiting Chief Justice also spoke about his disciplined father.

“He bought a small flat in Pune. I asked him why… he said he knew he would stay there but he told me, ‘keep that flat till you retire as a judge… so you know that if your moral integrity is to be compromised. you will always have a roof over your head’.”

Reflecting on his career, he described the role of judges as akin to pilgrims, coming to court each day with a commitment to serve. “The work we do can make or break cases,” he said. He paid tribute to the “great judges who have adorned this court and passed on the baton,” adding that he felt reassured leaving the bench in the capable hands of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, whom he praised as an able leader.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who has been nominated as his successor and will be sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on November 11, said, “I never had the chance to appear in Justice Chandrachud’s court, but what he has done for the marginalised and the needy is beyond compare.”

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the ongoing panchayat elections in Punjab, saying there will be “chaos” if courts start staying elections on polling day.

The polling for panchayat elections began at 8 am on Tuesday in the state and the petitions, seeking a stay on them, were mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.

“If polling has started today, how can we intervene at this stage? Probably the high court realised the gravity of it and vacated the stay on the elections,” the bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.

“There will be chaos if we stay the polling that too on the polling day,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.

The top court, however, agreed to hear the pleas challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court decision allowing panchayat polls in Punjab.

In a significant development, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently dismissed around 1,000 petitions seeking cancellation of panchayat elections.

Earlier, the high court had stayed the poll process. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Supreme Court now has a new insignia and its complex will also be expanded soon for which a groundbreaking ceremony was held today. The insignia features the Constitution of India, the building of the Supreme Court above it and the Ashok Chakra at the top.

According to sources, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud worked on the design of the insignia for several months.

After months of effort and hard work, it was decided that it will have the Constitution, then the building of the Supreme Court which gets its power from the Constitution and the Ashok Chakra will be at the top as it is the motto of our country.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice BV Nagarathna were among several current and retired members of the Supreme Court who attended the groundbreaking ceremony.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar Supreme Court Bar Association president Kapil Sibal, Supreme Court Advocate on Record Association president Vipin Nayyar and Secretary General Nikhil Jain also participated.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that the new building is “a symbol of the development as well as strength” of the Supreme Court. He said while the original structure will remain intact, the subsequent additions to the complex will make way for the new state-of-the-art facilities and will consist of a five-storeyed building.

It will have an additional 29 courtrooms, new judges chambers and dedicated spaces for lawyers and their own registry staff.

Apart from being an excellent example of architecture and fine arts, the building will be completely eco-friendly. The building will be equipped with five-star facilities including automatic gates, lifts and all measures to evacuate the building in the blink of an eye in case of any crisis.

Elaborating on the expansion, the Chief Justice said the new structure, spread over 86,500 square metres of built-up area, will be constructed in two phases and the first phase, being initiated today (October 14), will be completed within 29 months.

New Delhi:

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud pulled up a lawyer in the Supreme Court today after he told the bench that he had cross-checked with the court master about the details of the order dictated in court. “How dare you ask the court master what I dictated in the court? Tomorrow you will come to my house and ask the personal secretary what I am doing. Lawyers have lost all sense or what.”

The Chief Justice said he was still in charge, “though for a short time”. “Don’t try these funny tricks again, these are my last days in the court,” he said. The stern remarks came during an exchange over an arbitration order. 

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud is set to retire on November 10. Justice Sanjiv Khanna is the next in line for the top legal post.

During his two-year term, Chief Justice Chandrachud has focused on ensuring decorum in the courtroom and often rebuked lawyers for bypassing processes and callous conduct in court.

The latest example played out in court earlier this week when the Chief Justice criticised a lawyer’s use of the informal ‘yeah’ while addressing the bench. “This is not a coffee shop! what is this yeah yeah. I am very allergic to this yeah yeah. This cannot be allowed,” the Chief Justice said sternly.

Earlier this year, during the hearing in the crucial electoral bonds case, the Chief Justice had blasted a lawyer when he raised his voice while addressing the bench. “Don’t shout at me. This is not a Hyde Park corner meeting, you are in the court. You want to move an application, file an application. You have got my decision as Chief Justice, we are not hearing you. If you want to file an application, move it on the email. That’s the rule in this court,” he had said.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday responded firmly to a challenge to its authority – stressing that compliance with its orders is “not a matter of choice” – and expunged critical remarks made by a single-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court last month regarding a land dispute case.

The judge had reacted sharply to a May 3 order staying certain contempt proceedings.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud called the criticism “unnecessary” and said it lowered the dignity of both courts. “A party may be dissatisfied with a decision… but judges can never express dissatisfaction over the order passed by a higher constitutional forum,” the Chief Justice declared.

A five-judge bench of the Chief Justice and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy was responding suo moto to the judge’s comment, and called it a “matter of grave concern”. The bench also warned the judge – Justice Rajbir Sehrawat – who made the remark, saying it expected restraint while commenting on orders passed by the Supreme Court.

“Justice Sehrawat made observations in regard to the Supreme Court of India, which are a matter of grave concern… judicial discipline in the context of the hierarchical nature of the system is intended to preserve the dignity of all institutions, whether a district or a High Court, or the Supreme Court.”

“The observations made… were unnecessary for the ultimate order which was passed. Gratuitous observations in regard to previous orders passed by Supreme Court are absolutely unwarranted.”

The Supreme Court underlined that compliance with its orders is not “a matter of choice but a matter of constitutional obligation”. “Parties may be aggrieved by an order… but judges are never aggrieved by an order passed by a higher constitutional forum,” the Chief Justice-led bench.

The top court, however, declined to initiate contempt proceedings of its own against the judge, particularly since a Division Bench had acted first and stayed Justice Sehrawat’s order.

The court did, though, express hope that judges of other courts would learn from this episode and be cautious while commenting on orders passed by the country’s foremost legal forum.

The matter broke after a video of the judge making his observations went viral. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta suggested the video “makes (for) a case of aggravated contempt” against the judge.

Bengaluru:

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Sunday said the trial judges prefer playing safe by not granting bail on important issues of crime when it is looked at with a degree of suspicion.

The Chief Justice underlined the need for a ‘sense of robust common sense’ to look at the nitty-gritty of each case.

“People who should be getting bail in the trial courts and not getting it there, as a result of which, they have to invariably move the high courts. People who should be getting bail in the high courts will not necessarily get it, as a result of which, they have to move to the Supreme Court. This delay compounds the problem of those who are facing arbitrary arrests,” Justice Chandrachud said.

He was replying to a question at the end of a keynote address during the ’11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination’. The question was on the arbitrary arrests.

The questioner said we seem to live in a society where one acts first and seeks forgiveness later. This has become particularly true for public authorities acting in a politically motivated manner by detaining activists, academics, journalists and even politicians, including the chief ministers of opposition parties, he said.

According to him, all of these actions are taken with deep trust in the face of justice coming very slowly.

In reply, Justice Chandrachud said the Supreme Court has been constantly trying to convey that part of the reason for it is that there is an inherent distrust in the institutions within the country.

“I think it’s important that we learn to trust people who may be in a hierarchical legal system, like much below, which are the trial courts. We have to encourage trial courts to be more receptive to the need for accommodating concerns of people who are seeking liberty,” the CJI said.

“Unfortunately, the problem today is this, that we look at any grant of relief by trial judges with a degree of suspicion. That means that the trial judges increasingly are playing it safe, not granting bail on important issues of serious crimes,” he explained.

According to the CJI, judges have to look at the nitty gritties and see the fine prints of each case.

“You (judges) have to have a sense of robust common sense. Now, unless we, therefore, separate the grains from the chaff in criminal jurisprudence, it’s very unlikely that we will have just solutions and to allow for decision makers to separate the grain from the chaff, it’s important that we also place a great deal of trust,” Justice Chandrachud noted.

“I think that’s my concern that you can’t render courts as in the hierarchy as you go up dysfunctional, just by the number of very small cases that are placed before us”.

According to him, most of the cases should not have come to the Supreme Court at all.

“The reason why we are prioritising bail is to send this message across the nation that those at the most incipient levels of the decision-making process have to do their duties without this feeling that. I’ve been disgusted that my career will be on the line,” the CJI underlined.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bengaluru:

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said there was a marked shift in the way disability is looked at. Speaking at the inaugural session of the India Accessibility Summit and State Disability Commissioners’ Conclave here on Saturday, he said training, public meetings and policy-making have brought about the change.

“There is a marked shift in the way we approach disability. Training academies for administrative officers have dedicated modules for disability sensitization. State commissioners in some states are organising public meetings to improve service delivery and inform policy-making with lived experiences of people,” he said.

According to him, dedicated clinics at universities such as the Centre for Disability Studies at NALSAR, Hyderabad, policy think-tanks such as CLPR, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policies, NGOs and many other independent and sponsored institutions have enhanced the understanding of the ground realities about accessibility.

Private corporate entities have shown great initiative in promoting endeavours, ranging from research grants, CSR contributions, and inclusive hiring practices, Justice Chandrachud said.

He underlined that there is a long way to go before accessibility, autonomy, and equal participation for persons with disabilities are achieved.

“We still need accurate statistics of persons with disabilities, disaggregated along the various intersecting inequalities of gender, urban-rural divide, and types of disabilities,” Justice Chandrachud noted.

While government and private bodies are increasingly employing persons with disabilities, the workplace conditions are only slowly catching up, he told the gathering.

Technological solutions are sometimes prohibitively expensive and are unavailable to those who need them the most, he rued.

“Even as nearly 20 crore people live with psychosocial disabilities, we’re ill-prepared to properly diagnose and accommodate their needs. Honest and deliberate communication of needs is central to evolving solutions for some of these issues,” he pointed out.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud expressed concern over the rising instances of suicides among students in the country and ordered the Union Health Ministry to file an affidavit on steps being taken to prevent them.

Student suicide is a very serious social issue, the court noted.

Gaurav Bansal, an advocate, had filed a Public Interest Litigation, or PIL, demanding that measures be taken to stop the increasing tendency of suicides among children.

According to the Delhi Police’s response to an RTI query, over 400 students under the age of 18 died by suicide in the national capital Delhi between 2014 and 2018, Mr Bansal said.

Suicide is the largest public health crisis facing people, both the young and the old, in India, experts said, reported news agency IANS.

According to a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released in April, 1.71 lakh people died by suicide in 2022 in India.

The suicide rate has increased to 12.4 per 1,00,000 people, the highest rate ever recorded in India.

New Delhi:

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud put tough questions to the West Bengal government today while hearing its appeal against a Calcutta High Court order to cancel about 25,000 appointments by the state school service commission.

At the outset, the Chief Justice asked the Bengal government why it created supernumerary posts and hired waitlisted candidates when the selection process itself had been challenged in court.

Taking the court through the high court order, the Bengal government’s counsel, Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul asked if such an order can be sustained. “It is not even CBI’s case that 25,000 appointments are all illegal. Everything, teacher-child ratio is gone for a toss,” he said.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the school service commission, argued that the high court bench did not have the jurisdiction to cancel the jobs and its orders were in conflict with Supreme Court judgments in the matter. When the Chief Justice asked if OMR sheets and scanned copies of answer sheets had been destroyed, he replied in the affirmative. The Chief Justice then asked why a tender was not issued for “such a sensitive matter”.

The Chief Justice then asked it was the commission’s duty to keep digital copies of these sheets. When Mr Gupta responded that it is with the agency that the work was outsourced to, the Chief Justice asked, “Where? CBI did not find it. It is outsourced, not with you. Can there be a greater breach of security protocols? They were only hired for scanning, but you let them have the entire data. You cannot say they took it away, you are responsible for maintaining people’s data.”

The Chief Justice then asked if the commission had wrongly told RTI applicants that it had the data. “There is no data (with you) at all.” Mr Gupta replied, “That may be.” When he asked if the high court’s directions were fair, the Chief Justice replied, “But this is systemic fraud. Public jobs are extremely scarce today and are looked at for social mobility. What remains in the system if their appointments are also maligned? People will lose faith, how do you countenance this?”

Also appearing for the commission, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde said there is nothing in the high court judgment about irregularities on the part of the commission. “If we lose a whole chunk or generation in between, we will lose senior headmasters and examiners for the future. Lordships may bear in mind that many of them did not get any notice. When there is a headache, you do not cut off your entire head,” he said. 

The counsels also pointed out some candidates are completely untainted and their OMR sheets are seen as correct. A segregation between tainted and untainted candidates, they contended, was placed before the high court.

When the Chief Justice asked what was the basis on which a chart segregating tainted and untainted candidates was prepared, the Centre’s counsel, Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan, said the segregation is being created for the commission to save face.

Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who has been representing aggrieved job aspirants said, “OMR sheets were filed without any markings, shown as securing more marks. Discrepancy between digital and ssc data. Huge manipulation.”

“The point we wanted to identify is that was the ground to hold the process so tainted as to cancel all appointments?” the Chief Justice asked.

When Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for some of the affected teachers, raised the rulings by former high court judge and now BJP leader Abhijit Gangopadhyay, the Chief Justice responded, “Mr Dave we are not here to scrutinise the conduct of Mr Gangopadhyay. We have been here all morning listening to nitty gritties. Please show some decorum. Okay, no stay for now, we will issue notice and keep in July. We are finding it difficult to have an orderly hearing and now there is a slinging match going on. No stay or anything. How sensitive or politically fraught the matter is, we are lawyers at the end of the day. Levelling allegations at the HC judges will not help.”

The Supreme Court had last week paused the high court order asking the CBI to investigate Bengal government officials in connection with the teacher recruitment scam. It had refused to stay the cancellation of the appointment of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.

The court had also asked if it was possible to segregate the valid and invalid appointments on the basis of the material available.

The state government has argued that the high court has cancelled the appointments “arbitrarily”.

“The high court failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process, leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a standstill,” the petition says.

The high court has said in its April 22 order that the appointments are violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The court had observed that it had given “anxious consideration to the passionate plea” that persons who obtained the appointments legally would be prejudiced if the entire selection process was cancelled, but added that it hardly had any choice left.

In its 282-page judgment, the court had said retaining appointees selected through “such a dubious process” would be contrary to public interest.