Landmark judgments follow new CJI’s assumption of office

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will take over on January 4 as the 44th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, taking over from Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, whose 13-month tenure ended on January 3.

According to Manish Tiwari, senior advocate, Supreme Court, the tradition of leading the apex court with distinction, a hallmark of Justice T S Thakur’s tenure, will continue under Justice J S Khehar.

An expert on administrative and constitutional law, Justice Khehar has made his mark on Indian jurisprudence with several landmark judgments, including the striking down of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, which had created disputes between the executive and the judiciary in recent times.

“The ongoing tussle on the issue of judicial appointments in the backdrop of the NJAC verdict still remains largely unaddressed and will be priority for the new Chief Justice and must be dealt with carefully,” said Indira Jaising, senior advocate, Supreme Court.

Here are some major judgments, which have shaped the course of Indian jurisprudence in the past few years, during the tenures of Justice T S Thakur and Justice J S Khehar. Diesel ban case To curb vehicular pollution, a three-judge bench headed by Justice T S Thakur dealt with the issue of diesel emissions through orders on commercial vehicles and taxis and registration of luxury cars in the National Capital Region (NCR). The bench in October 2015 imposed a charge on commercial vehicles entering Delhi. In December 2015, the court banned the registration of all luxury diesel vehicles in the NCR region.

In April 2016, the bench barred diesel cabs from operating in the capital and ordered that they should use less polluting fuels such as CNG. This order was later modified to allow diesel taxis already registered to continue operations until the expiry of their tourist permits, but restricted new registrations to petrol- and CNG-vehicles. Finally, in a relief to large automobile manufacturers, the bench also relaxed its ban on luxury diesel vehicles, after setting a-first-of-its-kind condition requiring the payment of a one per cent levy on the ex-showroom price under the ‘polluter pays’ principle, in August 2016. Entry tax judgment A nine-judge bench presided over by Justice T S Thakur on November 11, 2016, upheld the validity of taxes levied by state governments on goods entering their jurisdictions from other regions. After deliberation and much to the disappointment of several large companies, the bench said states were within their rights to design fiscal legislation under the Constitution and such taxes would not be illegal if they were not discriminatory in nature, something that needed to be determined in each individual circumstance.

The court said a law could not be termed discriminatory as long as there existed no unfavourable bias towards a particular category. The verdict has allowed the states to secure revenue of around ~35,000 crore. Regulation of the BCCI Following the scandals concerning IPL betting and spotfixing, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice T S Thakur appointed the R M Lodha panel to recommend changes in the operational structure of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the world’s largest cricketing body. During the hearing, Justice Thakur compared the role of the organisation’s officials to a public function and ordered that no office-bearer of the BCCI could have any commercial interests in cricket.

Just a day before his retirement, Justice Thakur directed the removal of BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shinde and ordered that the affairs of the organisation be administered by an independent committee. The court also followed up on its previous warnings and issued contempt notice to Anurag Thakur under allegations of making false statements amounting to perjury. 2G judgment – presidential reference Justice Khehar, as part of a five-judge bench, said on September 27, 2012, that an auction order passed earlier by the apex court applied to the 2G case alone and not to subsequent allocations of resources, as the policy of auctioning was not a constitutional mandate.

The judgment came on a presidential reference to a February 2, 2012, decision cancelling 122 2G licences, holding that such natural resources should be distributed through public auctions in the backdrop of the telecom scam. Sahara – Subrata Roy case On May 6, 2014, Justice Khehar, as part of a two-judge bench, rejected claims alleging violations of principles of natural justice and upheld a March 4, 2014, order jailing Sahara chairman Subrata Roy. The bench concluded that Roy and the Sahara group had frustrated the orders of the court, directing the refund of ~20,000 crore to aggrieved investors. NJAC judgment A five-judge bench headed by Justice Khehar on October 16, 2015, declared the government’s attempts to replace the collegium system of judicial appointments with the NJAC Act and 99th Constitution Amendment to be in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution.

The bench struck down the NJAC Act, which had received the assent of the President in December 2014, on the grounds that the composition of the appointments commission did not adequately preserve the independence of the judiciary and violated the doctrine of separation of powers as a result.

The judgment restored the collegium system and directed the government to submit an alternative Memorandum of Procedure to evolve the procedure of judicial appointments in the constitutional courts of the nation.