CJI's comments on Iyer not justified, says Nagarathna

NEW DELHI: After penning successive dissents in two judgments of nine-judge SC benches, Justice B V Nagarathna on Tuesday took issue with CJI D Y Chandrachud's comments on the Justice Krishna Iyer Doctrine and said the remarks were "neither justified nor warranted".

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, who penned a dissent judgment, too disapproved of the majority opinion criticising Justice Iyer's Marxian interpretation of Article 39(b). "I must record here my strong disapproval of the remarks made on the Krishna Iyer Doctrine as it is called. This criticism is harsh and could have been avoided," he said.

The majority opinion of seven judges, authored by CJI Chandrachud, criticised Justice Iyer's minority interpretation of Article 39(b) in 1978 in Ranganatha Reddy case and also faulted the adoption of the minority view in Sanjeev Coke (1982) case judgment by a five-judge bench, which included Justice Nagarathna's father Justice E S Venkataramiah who went on to become CJI in 1989.

CJI Chandrachud said, "The majority judgment in Ranganatha Reddy expressly distanced itself from the observations made by Justice Krishna Iyer (speaking on behalf of the minority of judges) on the interpretation of Article 39(b). Thus, a coequal bench of this court in Sanjeev Coke violated judicial discipline and erred by relying on the minority opinion."

This was not taken kindly by Justice Nagarathna, who said, "Judgments in Ranganatha Reddy, Sanjeev Coke, Abu Kavur Bai and Basantibai correctly decided the issues that fell for consideration and do not call for any interference on the merits of the matters and as explained above. The observations of the judges in those decisions would not call for any critique in the present times. Neither is it justified nor warranted."

"Can principles of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation adopted in India since 1991, reforms in the economy and structural changes that have been brought about in these last three decades hold a mirror against the socio-economic policies that were followed in the decades immediately after India attained independence?" she asked. "Can we castigate former judges... for reaching a particular interpretive outcome?" she added.



"It is a matter of concern as to how the judicial brethren of posterity view the judgments of the brethren of the past, possibly by losing sight of the times in which the latter discharged their duties and the socio-economic policies that were pursued by the state and formed part of the constitutional culture during those times," Justice Nagarathna, who will take over as India's first woman CJI in 2027, said.

In his judgment, Justice Dhulia said, "The Krishna Iyer Doctrine, or for that matter the O Chinnappa Reddy Doctrine (in Sanjeev Coke judgment), is familiar to all who have anything to do with law or life. It is based on strong humanist principles of fairness and equity. It is a doctrine which has illuminated our path in dark times.

"The long body of their judgment is not just a reflection of their perspicacious intellect but more importantly of their empathy for the people, as human beings were at the centre of their judicial philosophy. In the words of Justice Krishna Iyer himself, 'the courts too have a constituency - the nation - and a manifesto - the Constitution'."