New Delhi: Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud’s visit to Rajkot in Gujarat on Saturday, January 6, has raised eyebrows. The chief said, after a publicly reported temple visit, that district court judges must draw inspiration from flags or dhwajas flown over temples which bind “all of us together”, so that the “dhwaja of justice” keeps flying for generations to come, reported The Sunday Express.He is reported to have said he was inspired by the dhwaja atop Dwarka and the Somnath temple which he visited in his two-day stay in Gujarat, emphasising the “universality of the tradition in our nation”, that there is some “unifying force above all of us, as lawyers, as judges, as citizens”. He did say that the unifying force is “our humanity” and “inspired by the life and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi”, and he had started visiting various states to understand challenges faced by the judiciary and forge solutions to them.Addressing a public meeting later, he said he was “moved” by the waste disposal system at the Somnath temple and urged courts in Gujarat to follow the system.Justice Chandrachud’s remarks drew an endorsement on Sunday morning from the prime minister, who shared his speech on social media and said “the Hon’ble Chief Justice of our Supreme Court has understood Rajkot very well! This commendable effort of his to speak in Gujarati and connect with people….”આપણી સર્વોચ્ચ અદાલતના આદરણીય મુખ્ય ન્યાયાધીશ રાજકોટને સારી રીતે સમજી ગયા છે! ગુજરાતીમાં બોલવાનો અને લોકો સાથે જોડાવાનો તેમનો આ સરાહનીય પ્રયાસ….. https://t.co/R15Z1PimwJ— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 7, 2024Historian and public intellectual Ramachandra Guha took the chief justice to task for getting infected by the language and metaphors of Modi’s ‘Naya Bharat’, dragging in temple dhwajas to make an ornery point about the importance of district courts. “Contrary to what the Chief Justice implies, there is a vast gap between the ideals of the orthodox Hindu tradition and the ideals that undergird our Constitution,” Guha argued.In his speech, the CJI that argued a continuum between the ideals of the orthodox Hindu tradition and the ideals that undergird our Constitution: “places like Puri and Dwarka would still have held on in toto to their anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian views had it not been for the Phules, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and the like, challenging caste discrimination on the ground — and had it not been for the Constituent Assembly of India, under Ambedkar’s direction, rejecting the Manu Smriti in favour of a democratic and egalitarian Constitution. Therefore, for the Chief Justice of India to claim a congruence between the flag ‘that has traditionally flown above Hindu temples’ and the modern text that is the Constitution of India is tendentious and misleading (to say the least).”In a recent analysis, senior advocate Indira Jaising had pointed out how ‘custom’ and ‘culture’ impacted the judiciary in 2023, as one saw an increasing trend to use those to justify imposing restrictions on fundamental rights or writing them out of existence. She writes:“A new set of practices has replaced constitutionalism and legality and has been elevated to the level above the Constitution with reference to which the Constitution and its basic features are to be interpreted. Rights, as we know them, are replaced by duties, negating the entire chapter on fundamental rights.Our fundamental duties now take precedence over our fundamental rights. We must all do our ‘kartavya’ without any expectation of freedom. A new language of politics and consequentially law has been invented in place of constitutionalism.We are told that there is an “intrinsic dharma” of the people of India which is ancient and predates the Constitution. Once a norm above the Constitution is created, it is easy to see why there is no need to amend the Constitution.”Delhi University professor Apoorvanand also opined on how CJI Chandrachud appears to be moving away from his job of dispensing justice, and instead focusing on the speeches he makes and messages he spreads outside of court.
