Supreme Court dismissed a petition which sought to restrain Justice DY Chandrachud from taking the oath as India’s next Chief Justice.
A bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela M Trivedi of India considered the petition filed by Mursalin Asijith Shaikh and the bench observed that they believe the entire petition is ambiguous or misconceived.
The petition, which was otherwise not listed in the cause-list for today, was mentioned for urgent listing by the petitioner’s counsel. This petition was filed on the basis of a complaint made by Mr Rashid Khan Pathan before the President of India against the Judge Chandrachud.
The complaint was made viral on social media and WhatsApp groups led by the Bar Council of India and several other bar associations to issue public statements strongly condemning the allegations and dismissing them as baseless.
When the matter was taken, the petitioner’s lawyer took objection to CJI Lalit hearing the case, as he had recommended Justice Chandrachud as the successor.
The counsel said that in cases related to COVID vaccination, Judge Chandrachud’s bench allowed tagging when senior counsel appeared, but when junior counsel appeared in similar matters, tagging was denied and was not allowed.
The counsel further claimed that Justice Chandrachud’s bench had heard a request for special leave resulting from an order of the Bombay High Court where his son acted as lawyer.
This is a legal matter in which the BCI stated that the learned judge was unaware of his son’s appearance. At that point, CJI Lalit asked counsel to provide evidence that the orders in question were attached to the Special Leave Petition. “Could you indicate that the order was part of annexure?” CJI Lalit asked.
The counsel, after struggling for sometime to find the annexure, requested that the matter be posted tomorrow.
CJI objected as the counsel said that they were ready, so the bench decided to listen to counsel and asked the counsel if he has anything substantial then they are ready to hear the petition and after proceeding the bench dismissed the petition.
