Ajit Nath Ray (29 January 1912 – 25 December 2009) was the
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of India from 25 April 1973 till his retirement on 28 January 1977.
Ray was the lone dissenter among the eleven Supreme Court judges that examined the constitutionality of the Bank Nationalization Act, in 1969. He had come to his appointment to the Court via
Presidency College,
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
,
Oriel College
Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, w ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
, and the
Calcutta High Court. His son Justice
Ajoy Nath Ray was the Chief Justice of the
Allahabad High Court.
Controversial appointment
In August 1969, he was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice of India in April 1973.
His appointment as CJI came on the heels of a dissenting opinion in the Keshavanand Bharti case which gave rise to the
Basic structure doctrine
The basic structure doctrine is a common law legal doctrine that the constitution of a sovereign state has certain characteristics that cannot be erased by its legislature. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and ...
of the Indian Constitution.
This appointment superseded three senior judges of the Supreme Court,
Jaishanker Manilal Shelat
Justice Jaishanker Manilal Shelat (16 July 1908 – 1 November 1985) was a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from February 1966 to April 1973. Before that, he served as the third Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat serving from May 19 ...
, AN Grover and
K. S. Hegde
Kowdoor Sadananda Hegde (11 June 1909 – 24 May 1990) was an Indian jurist and politician who served as a judge in the Supreme Court of India and later as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Hegde founded the Nitte Education Trust. He is the father o ...
, and was viewed as an attack on the independence of the Judiciary. This was unprecedented in Indian legal history, and has been called the "blackest day in Indian democracy".
It was marked by widespread protests by bar associations and legal groups across India. The protests continued for many months and on 3 May 1976 all legal groups in India observed a "Bar solidarity day" and stopped from work.
[
Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah (who was CJI earlier) remarked that "this was an attempt of not creating 'forward looking judges' but the 'judges looking forward' to the plumes of the office of Chief Justice".][ The process continued with the controversial appointment of Justice Beg superseding ]Hans Raj Khanna
Hans Raj Khanna (3 July 1912 – 25 February 2008) was an Indian judge, jurist and advocate who propounded the basic structure doctrine in 1973 and attempted to uphold civil liberties during the time of Emergency in India in a lone dissenting ...
in 1977.
After becoming Chief Justice, A.N. Ray more than shared the government's economic viewpoint – he developed an adulatory attitude towards Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He made himself amenable to her influence by telephoning her frequently, and also ask her personal secretary's advise on simple matters, conveying the impression that Prime Minister's views might be heard concerning an ongoing court-case.
Ultimately, the powers of the Judiciary over judicial appointments was re-established under the Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...
government with Shanti Bhushan
Shanti Bhushan (born 11 November 1925) is an Indian politician and lawyer. He served as the Law Minister of India holding office at the Ministry of Law and Justice from 1977 to 1979 in the Morarji Desai Ministry. He is a senior advocate of the ...
as law minister through various Constitutional amendments.
Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla (also known as the ''Habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
case'') is a major decision during his tenure as Chief Justice.
References
External links
Brief biography at http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/
Chief justices of India
1912 births
2010 deaths
Judges of the Calcutta High Court
20th-century Indian judges
University of Calcutta alumni
20th-century Indian lawyers
Presidents of the International Law Association
{{India-law-bio-stub