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Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (12 July 1920 – 14 July 2008) was an Indian jurist who served as the 16th
Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India ( IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation ...
, serving from 22 February 1978 to the day he retired on 11 July 1985. Born in
Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
in the
Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...
, he was first appointed a Justice of the
Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
on 28 August 1972 and is the longest-serving Chief Justice in India's history at 7 years and 4 months. His nickname was ''Iron Hands'' after his well-regarded unwillingness to let anything slip past him.


Tenure as Chief Justice of India

Justice Chandrachud was appointed Chief Justice of India during the term of the Janata government, under Prime Minister
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 ...
. During his tenure as Chief Justice, he sent Sanjay Gandhi to jail in the " Kissa Kursi Ka" case. When Indira Gandhi's Congress government came back to power a few years later, Chandrachud became a strong opponent of the government, and was known for staunchly defending the independence of the judiciary. The Indian-born Canadian scholar Bhagwan D. Dua wrote later on: :''"Though the entire judicial system was pressured to conform, the ruling party zeroed its attack on the pater familias. Unlike Justice Bhagwati, who was labeled as a Congress (I) man for his laudatory letter to Mrs. Gandhi, Chief Justice Chandrachud had a very low rating with the ruling household. Appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India by the Janata government – a disqualification in itself under the new regime – Chandrachud had not exactly endeared himself to the Gandhis for sending Sanjay to jail in 1978 or for turning volte face during the Janata period. By mid-1981, the estrangement between Chandrachud and the ruling party was so great that Ashoke Sen, a Congress (I) MP and the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, even hinted at his impeachment by Parliament. Undaunted, the Chief Justice continued to defend the judiciary against executive interference and called upon the Bench and Bar to be united as this was 'the only way we could fight the provocation and attack on the judges'….Throughout 1980, the Chief Justice had refused to submit to pressures and made the government appoint eight chief justices to High Courts (and five judges to the Supreme Court) according to well-established constitutional practices."''


The Habeas Corpus case

In one of the most notable cases in Indian constitutional history, during the Indian Emergency (1975-1977) of
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...
, a bench constituted of the five most senior judges of the
Supreme court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
heard the famous
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, ...
case
A.D.M. Jabalpur vs. Shukla
, where detenues under the restrictive
Maintenance of Internal Security Act The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was a controversial law passed by the Indian parliament in 1971 giving the administration of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Indian law enforcement agencies very broad powers – indefinite p ...
had argued that the Right to Life and Liberty (article 21 in the
Indian constitution The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
) could not be suspended even during periods of national emergency. The Indian constitution during that time itself provided that all fundamental rights, including the right to life under article 21 of the constitution, could be suspended during an Emergency. The Habeas Corpus majority decision therefore deferred to the original intent of the framers of India's constitution. However, the Indira Gandhi government flagrantly misused their powers during the Emergency, and as a result, the doctrine of "original intent" has never taken a firm hold in India. Despite widespread high court support for Habeas Corpus, Justice Chandrachud went along with Justices A.N. Ray, P.N. Bhagwati, and M.H. Beg, to reject this position, stating: ''in view of the Presidential Order dated 27 June 1975 no person has any locus to move any writ petition under Article 226 before a High Court for
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, ...
or any other writ or order or direction to challenge the legality of an order of detention''. The only dissenting opinion was from Justice
H. R. 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 ju ...
, who has been widely acclaimed for his dissent.


Minerva Mills Case

In the ''Minerva Mills'' case, the Supreme Court provided key clarifications on the interpretation of the basic structure doctrine. The court unanimously ruled that the power of the Parliament of India to amend the constitution is limited by the constitution. Hence the parliament cannot exercise this limited power to grant itself an unlimited power. In addition, a majority of the court also held that the parliament's power to amend is not a power to destroy. Hence the parliament cannot emasculate the fundamental rights of individuals, including the right to liberty and equality.


The Shah Bano case

In the
Shah Bano case ''Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum'' 985 (1) SCALE 767 = 1985 (3) SCR 844 = 1985 (2) SCC 556 = AIR 1985 SC 945 commonly referred to as the Shah Bano case, was a controversial maintenance lawsuit in India, in which the Supreme Court delivered ...
, the bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud, invoked a provision in The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 to order maintenance compensation to the divorced Muslim woman. This case caused the
Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...
government, with its absolute majority, to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which diluted the judgment of the Supreme Court.


Other judgments

Other important judgments by Chief Justice Chandrachud include: *
Chandrachud Commission Indian Match-fixing Investigations (1997) summarises the events surrounding the allegations laid by Manoj Prabhakar of match fixing in a magazine. BCCI instituted a commission to examine the charges. Based on lack of evidence, the commission dism ...
* Olga Tellis and ors Vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation and ors


Personal life

Y. V. Chandrachud was born on 12 July 1920 in
Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
,
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(now part of
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
). Chandrachud was educated at
Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya (NMV) is one of the oldest schools in Pune, Maharashtra, India. The school was founded by the Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, an educational charity on 1 January 1883. The school has a secondary school section for students in ...
high school,
Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...
and the ILS Law College, Pune. He was also one of the earliest LLM graduates at Bombay University. Justice Y.V. Chandrachud died on 14 July 2008 shortly after he was admitted to the Bombay Hospital. He is survived by his wife Prabha, his son
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian judge who is appointed as the 50th and current Chief Justice of India. He is a former chief justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former judge of the Bombay High Court. He ...
, current
Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India ( IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation ...
and his daughter Nirmala. His grandsons, Abhinav Chandrachud, a lawyer in Bombay high court and Chintan Chandrachud, a legal scholar and writer.


References


External links


Official Supreme Court of India Website


{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrachud, Y. V. 1920 births 2008 deaths Chief justices of India People from Pune Marathi people 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian judges