50th CJI Chandrachud part of landmark verdicts in Ayodhya dispute over adultery right to privacy

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New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, who took office as India’s 50th Chief Justice on Wednesday, has played a pivotal role in digitizing the judiciary and was among the benches that made historic verdicts on issues such as the Ayodhya Land Dispute, Article 377 and the right to privacy.
The longest serving supreme court justice follows in the footsteps of his father and former Chief Justice of India, the late YV Chandrachud, who was head of the bench from February 22, 1978 to July 11, 1985 and was the CJI on oldest in India. It is the first time that a father and his son occupy the highest place of justice.
CJI Chandrachud, often referred to as DYC in legal circles, was sworn in by President Draupadi Murmu. He succeeds Uday Umesh Lalit, who recommended him as his successor at the Center on October 11.
Unlike its predecessor who served for 74 days, the new Indian CJI will serve for two years until November 10, 2024. Supreme Court justices retire at the age of 65.
Justice Chandracud, born on November 11, 1959 and considered a product of Delhi University who studied at St Stephen’s College and Campus Law Center before going to Harvard, was elevated to the highest court on May 13, 2016 .
Considered a judge who enriched the supreme court’s “verdict report”, Justice Chandrachud is seen as sharp, articulate and forward-looking. Supposed to advance the judicial frontiers, he was a member of the benches which rendered judgments on the decriminalization of part of section 377 of the Indian penal code and the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple.
The list of important judgments that have settled many debates is long.
It was also part of a landmark verdict expanding the scope of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and related rules to include unmarried women for abortion between 20 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Justice Chandrachud was among two Supreme Court bench judges who recently objected to the “circulation” method adopted to obtain the opinions of its members on the appointment of judges to the superior court.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud took several directions to address the miseries people are facing while calling the second wave a “national crisis.” The bench, for example, ordered the Center to ensure oxygen supplies to hospitals across the country for proper treatment of patients.
Known as a doer, he chaired a bench that worked five hours beyond normal working hours on September 30, 2022 to hear 75 cases to clean up the council before the start of the Dussehra holiday.
In a landmark verdict in February 2020, a bench headed by Judge Chandrachud ordered that female army officers be granted permanent commission and command positions, dismissing the Center’s position on physiological limitations as being based on “gender stereotypes” and “gender discrimination against women”. “.
Later, a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud also paved the way for the granting of a permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Navy, saying that a level playing field ensures that women are given the opportunity to overcome the ” stories of discrimination”.
He served on several benches of the Constitution.
Justice Chandrachud was part of a bench of five Constitutional Justices that on November 9, 2019, in a unanimous verdict, paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site of Ayodhya and ordered the Center to allocate five acres of land to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque.
He also wrote the lead judgment for a bench of nine judges of the Constitution in the case of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v Union of India in which the right to privacy was unanimously held to be a fundamental right under the Constitution .
Judge Chandrachud was a member of the five-judge bench of the Constitution that unanimously decriminalized part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377, which criminalizes unnatural consensual sex between consenting adults, claiming that they violated equality rights.
Another bench of five judges, including Judge Chandrachud, unanimously ruled that Article 497 of the ICC, which criminalized adultery, was unconstitutional on the grounds that it was arbitrary, archaic and violated the right to equality and privacy.
In a strong dissent, Justice Chandrachud disagreed with other members of a five-judge constitutional bench that, by a majority verdict, upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar unique biometric identity number. He ruled that Aadhaar was unconstitutional and violated fundamental rights.
He concurred with the majority verdict in the Sabarimala case saying that the practice of barring women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple was discriminatory and violated women’s human rights.
Additionally, Judge Chandrachud was part of a landmark judgment by a bench of five Constitutional Justices that recognized the “living will” written by terminally ill patients for passive euthanasia.
A bench headed by Judge Chandrachud ordered the demolition of Supertech’s 40-storey twin towers at its Emerald project in Noida, which were found to be illegal for violating standards.
In November 2020, he led a bench granting bail to journalist Arnab Goswami in a 2018 suicide aiding and abetting case, saying it would be a “travesty of justice” if personal freedom was curtailed.
In July this year, a bench led by him ordered the release of Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair on bail in all FIRs filed in Uttar Pradesh against him for alleged hate speech, saying that “the exercise of the power of arrest must be continued”. sparingly” and transferred all cases from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi.
“Serving ordinary people is my priority…I will work for all citizens of the country. Whether it is in technology or in the register…or in judicial reforms, I will take care of the citizens in all aspects,” , he told reporters after being sworn in.
Justice Chandrachud served as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court from October 31, 2013 until his elevation to Supreme Court.
He served as a judge of the Bombay High Court from 29 March 2000 until his appointment as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.
He was appointed Senior Solicitor by the Bombay High Court in June 1998 and became Additional Solicitor General the same year.
After graduating with an Honors BA in Economics from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, Justice Chandracud completed his LL.B. from Campus Law Center, University of Delhi and earned a Master of Laws degree and a Doctorate of Juridical Science ( SJD) from Harvard Law School, USA.
Justice Chandrachud, who is married with two daughters, practiced law in the Supreme Court and High Court in Bombay and was a visiting professor of comparative constitutional law at the University of Mumbai. PTI ABA SJK MIN
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