Big verdicts lined up for CJI as he nears retirement

Outgoing Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who has just a month left in service, has some key tasks to complete –– he is expected to send in the name of his successor to the government and deliver a host of key judgements on issues such as the legality of Aadhaar and whether to refer to a larger bench the issue of mosques being essential to Islam, a case that will have a key bearing on the fate of the Ayodhya title suit.

Next in line to be CJI is the second senior-most judge in the court’s pecking order –– Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Among the important judgements he is expected to deliver is the Aadhaar case in which the court has to take a call on whether the government’s all-pervasive scheme is constitutionally valid. Activists have dubbed the scheme as an unreasonable restriction on the right of a citizen to privacy, now declared a fundamental right by the top court.


The government and pro-Aadhaar proponents say the scheme is necessary to plug the leakages in the huge subsidy bills for the poor. The central government also wants to use it in its NRC exercise underway in Assam to identify illegal immigrants to the state from neighbouring countries. Much of this will depend on what the court does. The CJI will also rule on the legality of curbs on women of certain ages entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, the legality of the adultery laws which are heavily tilted to men and decide the fate of the significant but minority LGBT community in India.

He has reserved judgement on a petition which calls upon the court to not only legalise all sorts of adult consensual sex, but also to make an affirmative declaration of their right to live in dignity.

The outgoing CJI is also expected to rule on whether to refer the issue of mosques being essential to Islam. An earlier ruling had ruled that it wasn’t, a ruling that the community says compromises their claims to Ayodhya. Should the CJI refer it to a larger bench that issue will have to be sorted out first, before the court can move on and hear the title suit. All this makes a final hearing on the title before 2019 improbable. All this will have to be done in the next 25-odd working days. The CJI demits office in October .