CJI DY Chandrachud, Retired Justice Krishna Iyer, And Remarks Made In 'Bad Taste'

While pronouncing the judgment in the property redistribution case, CJI Chandrachud remarked that Justice Iyer's verdict in the 1978 Ranganatha case was influenced by a particular school of economic thought, hinting at Justice Iyer's Marxist and socialist inclinations.

The CJI was referring to Justice Iyer's minority ruling in the Ranganatha case, whereby it was held that all private properties were open for redistribution to subserve the common good of the people.

The doctrinal error in the Krishna Iyer approach postulated a rigid economic theory, which advocates for greater state control over private resources as the exclusive basis for constitutional governance, according to the CJI.

"Though individual judges write judgments, they deliver them on behalf of the court," senior counsel Sanjay Hegde told NDTV Profit. "As counsel, we are sometimes rebuked for referring to a judgment as that of justice X or judge Y."

"Hence, instead of differing or overruling an earlier series of judgments of the court, the CJI seems to have attributed them to a single author, Justice Krishna Iyer," Hegde said.

Hegde added that while we loosely attribute certain doctrines with certain judges, all judgments are that of the court and not of an individual judicial personality.

It is "really sad" that personal comments were made on the philosophy or the leanings of a retired justice, according to senior counsel Sanjoy Ghose.

"We must not forget that the top court sets precedents and the precedent set today will come back to bite the same people who are authoring judgments on the basis of whatever philosophy they find dear to them," Ghose said.