Is the Indian Judiciary Independent of Political Bias? - The Appointment of Justice A.N. Ray

A.N. Ray was born on January 29, 1912. His appointment as the Chief Justice of India is remembered as a controversial decision of the Indira led government, which threatened the independence of the judiciary from the executive
Justice A. N. Ray; Source: The Better India

Justice A. N. Ray; Source: The Better India

The efficiency of the Indian government depends heavily on the independent functioning of its three pillars – the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. While this remains an ideal aim of democracy, it is often breached in reality. Ex-Chief Justice of India, Ajit Nath Ray’s appointment by the Indira Gandhi government, was one of the biggest controversies in Indian legal history, questioning the supposed independence of the judiciary from the executive.

Born on January 29, 1912, Ajit Nath Ray was a highly-educated legal scholar and a practising lawyer, who had attended prestigious educational institutes such as Presidency College (Calcutta), Hindu College and Oxford. After serving at the High Court in Calcutta for a few years, he was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court.

During his tenure as a Judge, Justice Ray was a part of the 13-judge panel deciding a verdict on the controversial Kesavananda Bharati case in 1972-73. Kesavananda Bharati was a Hindu monk from Kerala, who had filed a case against the Government of Kerala for breaching his fundamental rights by trying to seize the land used by him and his organisation for religious purposes. The Kerala Government had tried to take his land based on a newly amended act, which, in Bharati and his representation’s opinion, was an arbitrary use of parliamentary powers to amend laws in the favour of the government in power. The case was escalated to the Supreme Court, where a panel of 13 judges deliberated over the issue for about six months before finalising on a 7-6 verdict.

But herein lies the catch – the case had underlying political motives. Kesavananda Bharati’s side of the story was opposed by the in-power Indira Gandhi government because it meant that she could not make parliamentary changes to the Constitution on her whims and fancies. The eventual verdict went against her favour to consolidate the democratic functioning of the country, by stating that fundamental rights cannot be overruled by parliamentary changes. Though Bharati could not win back his land either, the case was a landmark ruling because it guaranteed Indian citizens certain rights irrespective of the executive and legislative in power.

Sadly, this verdict did not go down well with Indira Gandhi. At the time of appointing the next Chief Justice of India in 1973, she made sure to dismiss the top 3 senior judges of the Supreme Court who had ruled against her political motives – and made Justice A.N. Ray the CJI. This created a huge controversy and the legal network in India replied with strikes and condemnations of the same. It pointed towards a biased judicial system which attacked basic democratic ideals.

The decision to revoke the writ of Habeas corpus during the Emergency, which meant that the citizens could not go to the court to appeal for their rights to life and liberty, was another scandalous decision made by Ray during his tenure, obviously in favour of Indira Gandhi’s government.

Thankfully, the nexus between the executive and judiciary was broken when Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister and instituted laws to avoid such cases in the future.

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