Chandrachud vs Chandrachud: SC judge confident his father would have concurred on ADM Jabalpur verdict

Chandrachud Jr, while overruling the 1976 verdict, termed the earlier verdict as being 'seriously flawed'.

By Rohan Abraham, ET Bureau | Oct 24, 2019, 02.45 PM IST

While Justice Y. V. Chandrachud (L) was the longest-serving Chief Justice of India, his son Dhananjaya Chandrachud is currently the Supreme Court judge, and was a former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court.

Professional legacies, like family heirlooms, are often greater than the sum of their parts. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, son of the eminent jurist Y.V. Chandrachud, talks about setting right a “flawed” judgment his father was party to.

Despite good intentions, all men make mistakes - the repercussions of which are borne by those closest to them. However, in the case of judges, verdicts that go against the grain can have far-reaching effects on the lives of ordinary citizens.

On April 28, 1976, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court held the liberty was a regulated freedom, and hence, not absolute in extraordinary circumstances, such as during a state of internal Emergency. It set a dangerous precedent, allowing the powers-that-be to detain political rivals, who in turn could not move court to protect their democratic freedoms.

One of the signatories to this ruling was Justice Y. V. Chandrachud, who would go on to become the longest-serving Chief Justice of India (CJI). His son, Dhananjaya Chandrachud - ‘Danny’ to his friends - was then 16.

“Your family does shape you in terms of what you want to be initially. Beyond that, you are influenced by the kind of experiences that you encounter in life,” he said at an event in Mumbai. But Chandrachud, who would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the Bar, insists that he has always been his own man.

The verdict in the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivakant case, popularly known as the Habeas Corpus case, set the tone for countless arrests under the preventive detention law – a provision whereby defendants could not stake a claim to their liberty under extenuating circumstances.

In 2017, when the Emergency case was revisited, a nine-judge constitution bench upheld that privacy was a fundamental right, overruling the 1976 verdict. Incidentally, D.Y. Chandrachud, who wrote the judgement for the larger bench, termed the earlier verdict as being “seriously flawed.”

D.Y. Chandrachud followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Bar.

During his tenure as CJI, the late Justice Y.V. Chandrachud oversaw some landmark cases, such as the Shah Bano case and the Kissa Kursi Ka case, where Sanjay Gandhi was remanded to 30 days in judicial custody by the Supreme Court – a ruling that undid the perception that the judiciary had capitulated to political influence.

“It is difficult, to be honest, to dissent with somebody who is much wiser, who is so knowledgeable, so profound,” Chandrachud said, when asked about how he felt overruling a verdict to which his father was party to.

“The day I dictated that part of my privacy judgment, when I held that the habeas corpus judgment in ADM Jabalpur was wrong, it was 12 noon. I had about seven or eight hours of dictation to go. I told my secretary, “We’ll close for the day”. I had this feeling in my head that is hard to describe. I had publicly stated that my parent was wrong. But even if I had to say that again, I would,” Chandrachud said, adding that in hindsight, he reckons his father would concur with his verdict.

“I think my father would agree with the ruling. I have always had this feeling that through his life, he believed he was wrong in the ADM Jabalpur case. I think he would’ve done it differently (had the circumstances been different),” Chandrachud said.

Jayasuriya, Mike Tyson, Mohammed Shami: Sports Stars Caught On The Wrong Side Of Law

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By Maleeva Rebello

Former Sri Lankan cricket captain Sanath Jayasuriya was recently accused of smuggling rotten betel nuts to India. While the former cricketer denied the allegation, here are other sports stars who have been caught on the wrong side of the law.

(In pic from left: Sanath Jayasuriya, Mike Tyson, Muhammed Shami)