Indian judiciary to have father-son duo as CJI

New Delhi: History will be made when Justice DY Chandrachud takes over as the Chief Justice of India next month. As the son of former CJI YV Chandrachud, this will be the only father-son duo to have reached the position of the CJI. Justice YV Chandrachud was appointed to the post of the CJI in 1978 and he retired in 1985, serving the longest tenure of seven years at the post till date.

His son, Justice DY Chandrachud, will have a tenure of two years - the longest in the recent past. During his tenure, YV Chandrachud sentenced Sanjay Gandhi to jail in a case around the film 'Kissa Kursi Ka'. The film, a satire on the politics of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi, was banned by the Indian government during the Emergency. Justice DY Chandrachud, during his tenure as a judge of the Supreme Court, overturned two judgments of his father, YV Chandrachud.

The judgments were related to adultery and the right to privacy. In 2017, the infamous Habeaus Corpus case, in which the Supreme Court had allowed suspension of the right to life during the Emergency, was expressly overruled by Justice Chandrachud, with the other judges writing concurring opinions.

His father had been on the majority side in the 4:1 verdict in 1975. This judgement is referred to as the ADM Jabalpur case, where the former CJI Chandrachud was among four of the five judges who in 1976 upheld a Presidential order to impose Emergency in the country. Justice Chandrachud overruled another landmark judgment by his father, which had upheld the colonial-era adultery law.

Senior Chandrachud had upheld the validity of Section 497. However, his son Justice DY Chandrachud, while striking down the law, said, "We must make our judgments relevant to the present day. The law on adultery is a codified rule of patriarchy."