According to former CJI DY (Dhananjaya Yeshwant) Chandrachud, the judiciary exists to “scrutinise laws” and people should not presume that it can fulfil the role of opposition in the Parliament or state legislatures. His statement came in response to Leader of the Opposition of Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks that it has become the opposition’s job to work on behalf of the media, investigative agencies and judiciary. However, he refrained from directly addressing the comment or taking any names.
“Well, I don’t want to join issue with the Leader of the Opposition because that’s not the ambit of what we are here to speak. But what I want to say is this, people should not presume that the judiciary should be performing the role of the Opposition in Parliament or the State legislatures. Too often, there’s a misconception that the judiciary has to play the role of the Opposition in legislatures, which is not so. We are here to scrutinise laws,” he stated in an exclusive interview with ANI.
He further added, “We are entrusted with the duty to scrutinise executive action on whether it is consistent with the law, and whether it is consistent with the Constitution. There’s a different space in a democracy for the political opposition and what people try to do is to use the judiciary and to shoot from the shoulders of the judiciary and to try and convert the court into a space for the political opposition.” Rahul Gandhi alleged, “We are alone working on the behalf of media, investigative agencies and judiciary also. This is the reality of India.”
Chandrachud also stated that it is normal for people to mingle during formal gatherings in response to a query about the duration of his meetings with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition under intensive social media scrutiny. “Well, there are times when you interact with the Leader of the Opposition as well. For instance, many of our statutes require that a selection committee for appointment to a particular post must consist of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition. Now, you know, you discuss what you have to discuss, and you arrive at your conclusions. And after you’re done with those conclusions, you are human beings, right? You’re going to spend 10 minutes after that having a cup of tea, talking about everything under the sun from cricket to movies to something,” he pointed out.
He also responded to the issue surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to his home for a puja in September. He maintained that other judges have before visited the residences of prime ministers and that this particular incident was not exceptional. He mentioned, “Look at the work which we have done. I think something which is, you know, a social visit, a sociable visit and this is not unique. I’ve said this before, prime ministers visit people in the homes of judges on social occasions, sometimes on sad occasions as well.”
He added, “This is the element of elementary social courtesy which is followed within the system. And, you know, these social courtesies do not detract from the fact that despite these social curtsies which are observed at different levels of the government, in the work which we do, we are entirely independent of each other.” A row broke out when PM Modi went to the home of the then-Chief Justice of India to celebrate Ganpati Puja. The visit was criticized by the opposition, particularly Congress and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC), which claimed that such meetings would lead to concerns about possible conflicts of interest.
On 10th November, DY Chandrachud retired as Chief Justice of India. He has since been replaced by Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
