"I Hadn't The Slightest Doubt In My Mind That The ADM Jabalpur Judgment Should Be Overruled": Justice Chandarchud On Overruling His Father's Judgment

"When I had overruled ADM Jabalpur, I was sure that it had to be overruled. I hadn't the slightest doubt in my mind and I always felt that it had to be overruled having gathered the knowledge of law over the years. It wasn't difficult in that sense. But yes, there was, of course, a little bit of the personal element involved and I was conscious of the fact that I was overruling my father's judgment, which I again did eventually, in the adultery judgment".Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India. A graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi University and Harvard University where he went on to earn his Doctorate of Juridical Sciences as an Inlaks Scholar, Justice Chandrachud is widely known for his judgments, his broad range of knowledge as a jurist and philosopher and as a citizen of the country who has ushered in significant change in the country over the past two years, with his judgments. In this interview with Swagat Baruah, he discusses his idea of good judges, his influences, his vision of the future legal regime, his idea of free speech and also his favourite cricketers and musicians.Swagat Baruah: Do you think it's possible for judges to be apolitical? Should they be apolitical?D.Y. Chandrachud J: To speak specifically of India, else we'd have to cover a broad canvas, our legal system follows the common law tradition. Across the spectrum of the judiciary, judges are selected from the bar or from the bench itself for higher office.The manner in which our selection plays, from the district level to the Supreme Court is indicative of the fact that we are all essentially senior judges or people who have been brought in from the bar after much experience. The kind of training that goes into a person appointed to judicial office is essentially training of a protected nature, which I believe is significant.But our profession is such that we essentially construe ourselves as members of the legal group who are called upon to resolve legal disputes, be it civil, criminal or constitutional.Justice Chandrachud (LiveLaw) But if you look at some other country, such as the United States of America it is not necessarily conditioned by the fact that to hold judicial office you have to be a piece of the state. People from a wide spectrum of public and political life come into the Supreme Court. But once you occupy office, there is a certain internal discipline of the profession which the people must follow, which is the requirement of vigorous legal analysis, the application of legal principles, the need to ensure certainty and the adherence to dictum. So many of these features of our work necessarily condition our duties as judges.Having said that, I also understand that there are cases in front of us, both before the High Courts and the Supreme Court of our country, which have political undertones. Now here one must note that we don't apply the doctrine of judicial review of political questions which the American Supreme Court does, which means that they won't rule on political questions. Our Supreme Court has said that even if a case does have political undertone, that doesn't mean it can't decide the controversy. For instance, in cases involving Article 356 of the Indian Constitution, the court was required to apply a constitutional standard.Hence, in deciding a case of a political nature, the court does and must try to apply constitutional standards because so long as the judges apply constitutional standards, they attain the basic expectation of being apolitical. Even if they are deciding political disputes, they must meet these certain legal standards. That is the surest guarantee that judges can have while deciding political issues – the adherence to certain legal standards and principles.S.B: Leaving political affiliations or inclinations of judges aside, wouldn't you agree that judges can nonetheless be not void of ideological leanings?D.Y.C J: There would be judges who will obviously be more liberal than others. There would be judges who would be more conservative than others. There would be judges who would have a certain philosophy in terms of their own experience of life, in what they have seen of injustices as citizens, as lawyers and judges. So we are constantly being shaped by our experiences of life. But the surest guarantee to maintain your own credibility as a judge is to not get enmeshed in any political ideologies because that is something I believe, very distinct from your work as a judge. And your training as a judge enables you to do that. Which is not to say that judges don't have philosophies or that they don't have a particular view on public issues. That's personal to the judge as it is personal to every human being. But in the work that you do, you have to ensure that you keep all of this as aloof from your decision-making process by applying clear cut legal standards and constitutional principles.S.B: You've always called for a transformative society,...

"I Hadn't The Slightest Doubt In My Mind That The ADM Jabalpur Judgment Should Be Overruled": Justice Chandarchud On Overruling His Father's Judgment

Swagat Baruah

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