Five Supreme Court judges
At 10.30 am on Saturday, November 9, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict in the Ayodhya title suit case after a 40-day marathon daily hearing on the matter. Meet the five.
Ranjan Gogoi, Chief Justice of India
The 46th Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, born in 1954, joined the Bar in 1978, and was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2012. In October last year, he was appointed Chief Justice of India. He has heard several landmark cases, including one pertaining to National Citizens Register. In an unprecedented move in January 2018, he along and other Supreme Court judges held a press conference to express their displeasure with CJI Dipak Misra. On April 19, 2019, a former female Supreme Court employee accused CJI Gogoi of sexual misconduct. In response, he convened an extraordinary hearing and denied the charges. Many jurists and lawyers were shocked at the “procedural impropriety” shown by him. He was later issued a clean chit by a SC inquiry panel.
Sharad Arvind Bobde, CJI-designate
Born in 1956 in Nagpur, Justice S.A. Bobde got his BA and LLB degrees from Nagpur University and enrolled in the Roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978. Justice Bobde practised law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay high court with appearances in Bombay before the principal seat and also before the Supreme Court for over 21 years.
Justice Bobde was designated a senior advocate in 1998 and was elevated to the bench of the Bombay high court as additional judge in 2000. He was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court in 2012 and elevated as a judge of Supreme Court next year. His retirement is due in April 2021. Justice Bobde will be the next CJI, taking charge on November 18, after Justice Gogoi demits office.
Ashok Bhushan, SC judge
Justice Ashok Bhushan, born in 1956 in Jaunpur, UP, obtained a law degree from Allahabad University in 1979 and was elevated as a permanent judge of the Allahabad high court in 2001 and as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2016.
Justice Bhushan joined the bench dealing with Ayodhya matter months after delivering a relatively important judgment on September 27, 2018, in which a three-member bench refused to refer to five-judge Constitution bench a 1994 verdicvt which held that mosque was not integral to offering prayers in Islam. Writing for himself and then CJI Dipak Misra, he declined the request that the 1994 judgment be sent to a larger bench as it would have a bearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid land dispute.
D.Y. Chandrachud, SC judge
In May 2016, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. Previously he was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court.
Justice Chandrachud, born in 1959, was appointed as the additional solicitor-general in 1998. He practised law at the Supreme Court and the Bombay high court. A Delhi University graduate, Justice Chandrachud obtained his LLM degree and a doctorate in juridical sciences from Harvard Law School.
He is known to have overturned several rulings believed to have turned obsolete with time. Some such verdicts, including those on the adultery law and the right to privacy, were handed down from his father, Y.V. Chandrachur, the longest serving Chief Justice of India.
S. Abdul Nazeer, SC judge
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer practised in the Karnataka high court for 20 years after he enrolled as an advocate in February 1983. Born in 1958, Justice Nazeer was appointed as an additional judge of the Karnataka high court in 2003 and as a permanent judge in 2004. He was elevated as Supreme Court judge in 2017. He is one among a very few in India who became a Supreme Court judge without becoming chief justice of any of the high courts in the country.
Justice Nazeer was part of the five-judge bench in the “triple talaq” matter but had delivered a minority verdict along with then Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar. They upheld the validity of the practise of Triple Talaq based on that fact that it is permissible under Muslim Sharia Law.