Dhananjay Mahapatra
Dhananjay Mahapatra has spent 20 years in journalism, 15 of which have been on the legal beat. Right from trial court to the Supreme Court, he has covered many sensational cas LESS
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On Jan 26, 1950, the first chief justice of India took office under the new Constitution. Three days before CJI Harilal Jekisundas Kania took this oath, his comments on a Madras high court judge (Bashir Ahmed) evoked a sharp reaction from the prime minister. Nehru wrote to home minister Sardar Patel that Kania was being “unjudicial and indeed improper”. Patel deputed the home secretary to convince Kania not to give an adverse opinion on Justice Bashir.
Thus, the executive’s attempts to influence CJI, for appointments to constitutional courts, are as old as the Supreme Court itself. The Nehru era saw such attempts fuelling apprehensions about the dilution of judiciary’s independence.
In 1958, the first law commission, led by MC Setalvad, in its 14th report put the blame primarily on chief ministers becoming a source of patronage for those aspiring to become HC judges.
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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