Justice D Y Chandrachud retires as CJI, leaves transformative legacy in judiciary

New Delhi: Justice D Y Chandrachud on Sunday concluded his tenure as the 50th Chief Justice of India after two years marked by transformative rulings and substantial reforms, carving out a unique legacy in the Indian judicial history.

Beside delivering several landmark judgements like the Ayodhya land dispute, abrogation of Article 370 and the decriminalisation of consensual gay sex that shaped society and politics, he was part of 38 constitution benches during his eight years tenure as a judge in the Supreme Court.

During his tenure at the apex court, he rendered more than 500 judgements, some of them having wide ramification to the society and legal field.

India’s 50th Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, known also for his many pithy statements, leaves an imprint all his own on the annals of legal history.

Not only on the judicial side but even in the administrative side, CJI Chandrachud left his imprint as he led various reforms in the judiciary. He ordered an accessibility audit of the Supreme Court to make the courts accessible to the common man and disabled friendly.

The Chandrachud legacy has a physical manifestation too - a reimagined ‘Lady Justice’. The earlier ‘Goddess of Justice’ in Grecian robes with blindfold and sword has been replaced by a six-ft tall sculpture with scales in one hand and the Constitution in another. She is in a sari, with a crown and sans blindfold.

While that created a stir, so did the decision on his penultimate day at work with the Supreme Court rechristening its summer vacation "partial court working days", an issue that has led to criticism that the apex court judges enjoyed long breaks.

DYC followed in the footsteps of his father Y V Chandrachud, who served as the CJI with the longest tenure between 1978 and 1985, the only instance of a father and son occupying the highest seat in the highest court of India.

The son, who studied in Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and Campus Law Centre and then went on to get an LLM degree and a doctorate from the Harvard Law School, became the chief justice on November 9, 2022.

The list of judgements penned by him is long and covers almost all aspects of law. They blend scholarship and jurisprudence and are likely to inform both future decisions and how the law is studied.

The verdicts have included establishing the judiciary’s commitment to protecting individual rights and advancing justice, expanding the scope of fundamental rights to include privacy and invalidating the electoral bond scheme.

He was part of a landmark judgement by a five-judge constitution bench that recognised the 'living will' made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia.

The formidable Chandrachud was also part of several Constitution benches and wrote landmark verdicts, including the contentious Ayodhya land title dispute.

He was author of the unanimous 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute which settled the fractious issue going back more than a century and paved the way for construction of the temple. Ranjan Gogoi was the chief justice at the time and heading the five-judge bench.

In his last days in office, the CJI stirred another controversy when he said in a public function that he prayed to the “deity” for a solution to the polarising dispute. The comment was reproduced widely and elicited sharp reactions from various quarters, including politicians and activists.

Chandrachud, who also attracted attention when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a widely publicised Ganesh Puja at his home, was the author of the lead judgement that unanimously upheld the 2019 revocation of Article 370 that gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides, he was on the bench that delivered path-breaking judgements on decriminalising same-sex relations and partially struck down Section 377 of the IPC on so-called unnatural sex (of carnal intercourse against the order of the nature).

However, the long-pending issue of granting legal sanction to same sex marriage went against the LGBTQIA++ community and a five-judge bench headed by Chandrachud refused to accord legal recognition to it.

He was also part of a nine-judge bench and key author of the unanimous verdict that declared the right to privacy a fundamental right under Article 21 (life and personal liberty).

The CJI, one of the most prolific judges in independent India, led the charge for significant administrative reforms, including the continued digitisation of court records and processes as a part of the ongoing e-Courts project.

The list is long.

He expanded the scope of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and the corresponding rules to include unmarried women, even transgender, for abortion between 20-24 weeks of pregnancy.

Chandrachud, who was elevated to the top court on May 13, 2016, was born on November 11, 1959. He was a judge of the Bombay High Court from March 29, 2000 until his appointment as the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court from October 31, 2013.

Before that, he was designated senior advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998 and became additional solicitor general the same year till his appointment as a judge.

Besides his legal acumen, Chandrachud is known for his love of cricket, which, according to some accounts, he played in the backyard of the bungalow Chandrachud Sr was allotted in Lutyens Delhi.