Editorial with Sujit Nair | "Most Trolled Judge": DY Chandrachud | CJI | Supreme Court

[00:00:00] Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of Editorial. Today, the new Chief Justice of India Mr. Sanjeev Khanna takes over. Actually, my topic is not about the new Chief Justice of India. My topic is about our former Chief Justice, Justice DY Chandrachud.

[00:00:25] I want to talk about Justice DY Chandrachud and I want to also talk about that parting speech that he gave. Let's get right into the show.

[00:00:39] So, Justice Sanjeev Khanna is going to take over as our new Chief Justice. We will talk about Justice Sanjeev Khanna in a while.

[00:00:48] But before I talk about Justice Sanjeev Khanna, I want to talk about the former Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud.

[00:00:56] Particularly, I want to talk about the speech that he made. Just hear this clipping.

[00:01:02] Last, may I only say this. I am sure all of you are aware of the amount that I have received my share of trolling.

[00:01:11] I am probably one of the most trolled individuals and judges across the system. I will only say with a shairi.

[00:01:20] And the shairi is,

[00:01:23] Mukhalif se meri shaksiyat samvarti hai.

[00:01:27] Mukhalif se meri shaksiyat samvarti hai.

[00:01:31] Mai dushmano ka bada ahtiram karta hoon.

[00:01:39] But on a lighter vein, I am just wondering what will happen from Monday.

[00:01:45] Because all those who trolled me will be rendered unemployed.

[00:01:51] He says that he is possibly the most trolled individual and judge in the system.

[00:01:59] He says,

[00:02:00] Trolls, what are you going to do after Monday?

[00:02:04] I am not. Now who will you troll?

[00:02:06] Okay.

[00:02:07] He said all this very jokingly.

[00:02:09] But I don't think he was joking.

[00:02:11] I think he was seriously hurt.

[00:02:13] He is seriously hurt with all the trolling that went around.

[00:02:17] Now the question is,

[00:02:21] Is everything said about him absolutely baseless and wrong?

[00:02:26] Is there a reason why people are angry with him?

[00:02:30] Does he understand why people are not so happy with him?

[00:02:34] Some are angry with him.

[00:02:35] And some like me are disappointed with him.

[00:02:39] Does he understand why?

[00:02:41] If it doesn't, let me elaborate.

[00:02:45] You see, what happens is,

[00:02:47] There are two kinds of people you meet.

[00:02:50] One is a person you know,

[00:02:52] He is not so civil.

[00:02:55] His thinking may be not so right.

[00:02:59] He is corrupt.

[00:03:01] He has no spine.

[00:03:03] He is not decisive.

[00:03:06] He will go by the power that rules him.

[00:03:11] And he will favour the power.

[00:03:13] Some people we know.

[00:03:14] We know and I don't have to take names.

[00:03:17] You know some names that I was intending.

[00:03:20] So let's not take names.

[00:03:22] But then you see some others as your hope.

[00:03:29] Somebody said the North Star, your hope.

[00:03:32] A person who you think will come and stand there and take decisions.

[00:03:38] Without fear of favour.

[00:03:41] Take decisions.

[00:03:43] Somebody who will come and stand there and practice what is correct.

[00:03:48] Practice what is correct.

[00:03:51] I am repeating my word.

[00:03:52] And I will come to that.

[00:03:53] You expect that person to do that.

[00:03:56] You know when such people fail no?

[00:03:59] When such people fail no?

[00:04:01] When such people fail no?

[00:04:01] That is when people are more disappointed.

[00:04:03] It hurts.

[00:04:05] Because you are looking up to these people to guard our constitution.

[00:04:12] In my mind, to my mind, D.Y.

[00:04:15] Chandrachud was one such case.

[00:04:18] A lot was expected out of D.Y.

[00:04:21] Chandrachud.

[00:04:21] And I can tell you as my personal opinion, I am completely disappointed.

[00:04:26] I am completely disappointed with D.Y. Chandrachud.

[00:04:30] Now I wonder why was he, what he was before he became the Chief Justice and how he changed,

[00:04:38] especially in the last phase of his tenure.

[00:04:42] How he changed.

[00:04:45] You see first and foremost is, let's start from the end.

[00:04:50] In fact, we will not follow any chronology.

[00:04:52] We will take couple of cases and we will discuss that.

[00:04:55] You see, the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice should always

[00:05:03] be correct, not necessarily co-ordial.

[00:05:08] It's actually not advisable that the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice or the Prime

[00:05:13] Minister and the Chief Justice are the best of friends.

[00:05:17] Not correct.

[00:05:18] Not correct.

[00:05:20] Because the government is one of the biggest litigant.

[00:05:24] In the court of law.

[00:05:27] So if the Prime Minister is your friend, what are people to expect?

[00:05:31] What are people to expect?

[00:05:33] People will expect that the Prime Minister has got tremendous influence over the Chief Justice

[00:05:37] of India.

[00:05:39] So where will I win if I go against the government?

[00:05:41] If I put a writ petition against the government, where am I going to win?

[00:05:44] The Prime Minister will win.

[00:05:46] They have got great relationship.

[00:05:47] Wouldn't this what a normal human being would think?

[00:05:50] Now, Justice D.Y.

[00:05:53] Chandrachur had other things to say.

[00:05:55] He said, the PM visited my residence for Ganpati Puja.

[00:05:59] I do feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong as there are continuing meetings between the

[00:06:04] judiciary and the executive even at a social level.

[00:06:07] We meet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Republic Day etc.

[00:06:11] We are in conversation with the Prime Minister and the ministers.

[00:06:14] This conversation does not involve cases which we decide but life and society in general.

[00:06:21] So the Chief Justice says, what do you mean?

[00:06:26] We can't talk about the people.

[00:06:28] We meet in Rashtrapati Bhavan, we meet in Republic Day.

[00:06:31] So we discuss.

[00:06:32] We discuss society and we discuss life in general with the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister.

[00:06:38] Why can't we discuss?

[00:06:39] We don't discuss and we don't crack deals when we meet.

[00:06:42] Why are you saying that whenever we meet the Prime Minister if I call him over to the

[00:06:47] Pooja at home, I am cracking a deal with them?

[00:06:51] Okay.

[00:06:54] Why should a person believe, a common man like me believe that there are no deals cracked when

[00:07:00] a Prime Minister and the Chief Justice meets in a social gathering, on a private gathering

[00:07:07] and has a private discussion?

[00:07:09] Why should I believe that there is no deal cracked?

[00:07:11] Should I just take the Chief Justice's word for granted?

[00:07:15] Just on his word that I have not discussed, that means that I have not discussed.

[00:07:18] Is that how it is?

[00:07:20] Will the Chief Justice take a convict or an accused's word for granted?

[00:07:26] If that accused comes and says, I have not done murder, will the Chief Justice take it for granted?

[00:07:31] So that is the same way when a Chief Justice says, okay, we just call to discuss life and society.

[00:07:39] Why should we take his word for granted?

[00:07:42] He doesn't take our word for granted, does it?

[00:07:44] So, isn't that same for him?

[00:07:47] Number 2.

[00:07:47] Number 3.

[00:07:50] Why this last year?

[00:07:53] Ganpati I think is every year.

[00:07:56] Why didn't such occasions, such social gathering, such social meets to discuss life and society.

[00:08:06] Why couldn't, why didn't it happen earlier?

[00:08:08] Why just before the retirement?

[00:08:11] Isn't that a question?

[00:08:12] Wouldn't the Chief Justice, if he was judging the case, wouldn't he ask, why should I go now?

[00:08:18] Just before the retirement?

[00:08:20] Would that be a logical question?

[00:08:21] Okay, let's keep this aside.

[00:08:24] Let's talk about his judgement.

[00:08:27] You see, Electoral Bonds, he took it up February.

[00:08:31] And on March 6th, he asked the SBI to produce documents in front of him.

[00:08:40] March 6th, the State Bank of India came and said that,

[00:08:43] Why?

[00:08:45] Because, it's all spread all over the branches.

[00:08:48] We cannot coordinate the name of the person to the name of the account and to the name of the code and to the name of the number and all that.

[00:08:55] So, it is not happening.

[00:08:57] This is what he said.

[00:08:58] This is what the chairman of SBI said.

[00:09:04] Chandra Chud, first said nothing doing.

[00:09:07] You have to produce it by the 13th of June, March.

[00:09:10] I will give you six more days.

[00:09:12] Kuch bhi koro, present koro.

[00:09:15] SBI said, we will present by 30th of June.

[00:09:18] That means after the election.

[00:09:20] Chandra Chud said, now, 13th go.

[00:09:24] SBI came and produced the documents, every document.

[00:09:30] Rest, you know the story.

[00:09:31] Or you watch our channel.

[00:09:33] We have got almost every person who are directly or indirectly involved in electoral bonds.

[00:09:39] We've got them, their interviews and so on and so forth.

[00:09:42] So, they pronounced, they had pronounced that it is unconstitutional.

[00:09:47] And the documents were uploaded.

[00:09:51] So, there was a lot of kudos.

[00:09:53] Everybody said, Tandar Chudu, great man, superb.

[00:09:56] Even I said it.

[00:09:57] Now, let me ask you a question.

[00:10:00] By the time all this happened, whichever political party had to get the money, that money went to their coffers.

[00:10:08] The largest of it went to Bharatiya Janata Party.

[00:10:11] We know that.

[00:10:12] So, whichever political parties including Congress, DMK, every political party got what they had to get from electoral bonds.

[00:10:19] So, two or three months, they got what they wanted.

[00:10:24] Number one.

[00:10:26] Was that money or were any decisions taken to take back that money?

[00:10:31] It is unconstitutional, no?

[00:10:33] You got the money, no?

[00:10:35] So, why didn't, why wasn't there a provision to take back the money which these political parties had?

[00:10:41] Did something of that sort happen?

[00:10:43] No.

[00:10:43] No.

[00:10:43] So, which means political parties were affected but they had already got a lot of money from these electoral bonds.

[00:10:51] Point number one.

[00:10:53] Point number two.

[00:10:54] You see, if a common man, say for instance me, I, if I lie to the court, I will be booked under perjury.

[00:11:02] Lying to the court.

[00:11:04] I can be put behind bars.

[00:11:06] Because it is a arrestable offense.

[00:11:09] It's a, it's an offense where I can be arrested.

[00:11:12] This chairman of SBI, he lied to the court, no?

[00:11:16] He said, June will not be going until June.

[00:11:18] Because it is all scattered and it is all there and it is all here and all that.

[00:11:21] But when the court said, no, I'm not going to ask you.

[00:11:23] 13th of March, the data was put up.

[00:11:26] How did that happen?

[00:11:27] Yes, he was.

[00:11:29] So, if he could do it after the court putting their foot down and he said he cannot do it till June, which means he was lying to the court earlier on.

[00:11:39] Why was SBI not punished?

[00:11:42] So finally, in this electoral bond, what happened?

[00:11:45] In the future, there will be electoral bonds.

[00:11:47] You never know, they can make an amendment to electoral bonds and they can reproduce the bill and they can get the bill passed again and electoral bonds or format of, or another format of electoral bonds can come back.

[00:11:58] What exactly did the country achieve?

[00:12:01] Pray tell me.

[00:12:03] Did the money go back like I mentioned before to the people who paid and the political parties were asked to pay the money back?

[00:12:10] No.

[00:12:11] Did SBI who lied clearly, clearly, clearly lied to the court that June took not to be able to get it in March, were they punished?

[00:12:18] No.

[00:12:19] What happened in electoral bonds?

[00:12:22] What are we so excited about?

[00:12:24] So that is another judgment that I wondered.

[00:12:29] You know, Manipur is a state I have been following very closely.

[00:12:34] Soon after the violence started, I am reading this out of Live Law's article.

[00:12:42] Soon after the violence started, petitions were filed in the Supreme Court by tribal groups seeking protection by the armed force.

[00:12:52] Tribals pleaded to the Supreme Court, protect us, protect us with the armed force.

[00:12:58] Okay.

[00:13:00] The bench led by CJI, Chandra Choor chose to go by the statements made on behalf of the union and the state in early May 2023.

[00:13:11] That normalcy was being restored.

[00:13:15] So in May 2023, he believed the state and union government where the union government didn't say what armed forces did all that.

[00:13:24] Normalcy has been restored May 2023.

[00:13:27] And D.Y. Chandra Choor went by the union government.

[00:13:34] Now, what happened?

[00:13:36] Armed forces were not sent.

[00:13:38] You see, the reason why he gave it, that also let me tell you.

[00:13:41] The court refused to accept the tribal groups plea to deploy armed forces in Manipur for security, saying that the court cannot run law and order.

[00:13:50] The court said, I don't have to send law and order to my work.

[00:13:52] That you send police, battalion, SRPF, CRPF.

[00:13:56] The court is not our job.

[00:13:59] So why should we take a call on that?

[00:14:01] If the state is saying, if the union is saying everything is good, everything must be good.

[00:14:05] This is what the court said.

[00:14:07] You know, interestingly, the same D.Y. Chandra Choor, Justice D.Y. Chandra Choor had earlier in 2021 passed a direction to deploy CAPF, Central Armed Police Force, for Tripura local body elections.

[00:14:24] Then he had decided.

[00:14:26] In 2021, he said put Central Armed Police Force in Tripura.

[00:14:31] Then he had decided.

[00:14:32] But now he says it is not our job to decide.

[00:14:35] So when it came to Manipur, it was not our job to decide.

[00:14:37] Because the Central and the Union government said,

[00:14:40] Sapti Kojaga, everything is good.

[00:14:42] Everything is good.

[00:14:43] So he said, okay.

[00:14:44] And earlier on, he had taken a call and put CAPF.

[00:14:49] So the point that I am trying to say is, here also, what exactly are the decisions that the Supreme Court took?

[00:14:56] How did the people of Manipur, except for a lot of words, Supreme Court fired the government, fired everybody.

[00:15:02] All that verbal expressions, verbal, all that has to be said was told.

[00:15:10] But finally, what relief did the Supreme Court get the people of Manipur?

[00:15:15] Tell me one relief that the Supreme Court got the people of Manipur.

[00:15:19] That is what a Chief Justice is expected to do.

[00:15:22] The Chief Justice didn't do that.

[00:15:23] He made a lot of speeches.

[00:15:25] He made a lot of statements, which is fabulous.

[00:15:28] By the way, the Supreme Court itself was forced to acknowledge a few weeks later, when certain horrific videos showing sexual assault on women on Manipur viral on social media.

[00:15:41] You remember those videos of those women, when those videos went viral.

[00:15:46] The Supreme Court themselves had to agree that boss, the situation is alarming.

[00:15:50] All the good things are not.

[00:15:51] The Supreme Court had to agree.

[00:15:54] This was in June 2023.

[00:15:58] Had the Supreme Court intervened in whatever, May 2023, things wouldn't have deteriorated to this situation.

[00:16:06] Now, is it the Supreme Court's job to control and administer all the state?

[00:16:11] No, it is not the Supreme Court's job.

[00:16:13] That is not what we are expecting.

[00:16:14] But it was bought to Supreme Court's notice.

[00:16:17] It was bought to Supreme Court's notice.

[00:16:20] A right step from Supreme Court would have saved how many lives?

[00:16:27] That's the question I wanted to ask Mr. D.Y. Chandra Chud.

[00:16:30] The Chief Justice, who I thought was going by law, going by what is written in the IPC or now Bharat Nyaya Samhita, going by that, passing judgments on that basis.

[00:16:48] The judge, I thought, was doing that.

[00:16:51] Later on, last days, fag end of his career, came and told us, no, I used to go to deity and then I prayed to my deity and I understood what to do next.

[00:17:01] You tell me, if he, if people, how should, how does he think people should react to all of this?

[00:17:10] How does he think people should react to all of this?

[00:17:12] Like I said in my earlier editorial, I repeat, a doctor saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[00:17:17] I will go to my nearest deity.

[00:17:19] I will figure out from my nearest deity and I will prescribe the medicine to you based on what the deity says.

[00:17:25] How will you react to a doctor like this?

[00:17:27] Likewise, my judge says that, wait, wait, wait, let me check with my deity and I will get back to you.

[00:17:32] If he says that, what am I supposed to believe?

[00:17:36] So the fact is, while it's sad that he felt that he was the most trolled judge in the country and most trolled individual in the country.

[00:17:47] But the fact remains that, yes.

[00:17:49] I mean, you know, the trolling was completely unjustified or the trolling is, you know, just that people are, you know, doing it for the heck of it or it was a plan.

[00:17:58] That would be nice.

[00:17:59] Lot of people are disappointed.

[00:18:00] I am also disappointed.

[00:18:01] More disappointed because I thought this was one judge who is going to make a difference after a series of go-goys and others.

[00:18:10] You know, I thought this was a judge that would make a difference.

[00:18:14] Unfortunately, no, he didn't.

[00:18:17] So that was the point.

[00:18:20] Finally, talking about Justice Sanjeev Khanna who took over as the CJI.

[00:18:26] Justice Sanjeev Khanna has been part of several landmark Supreme Court decisions.

[00:18:30] By the way, he was part of the electoral bonds.

[00:18:34] He was in the bench.

[00:18:37] He was also part of the bench that abrogated the Article 370.

[00:18:42] He was also part of the judgment that uphold the electronic voting machines in India.

[00:18:47] So he has a series of judgments that he has passed.

[00:18:52] Let us look forward to Justice Sanjeev Khanna and what he does for the country.

[00:18:58] That's how I will put it.

[00:19:01] And yeah, till I see you next time.

[00:19:03] That's tomorrow at 10.

[00:19:05] Namaskar.

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