A five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi will deliver its verdict in the Ayodhya temple-mosque title suit Saturday. In spite of Saturday being a non-working day for the Supreme Court, the CJI has decided to go ahead and announce the verdict. Given the sensitivity of the case, the government has increased the security cover for all the judges involved in giving the verdict.
Here’s a look at the five judges who are involved in this landmark case.
Ranjan Gogoi (Chief Justice of India)
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, belongs to Assam is the first person from the northeast to be appointed to the country’s top judicial position. He took the chair of CJI in October 2018. Ranjan Gogoi enrolled at the bar in 1978, he practised at the Gauhati High Court and became a permanent judge February 28, 2001. Later he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2012. During his tenure as a Supreme Court judge and CJI he has heard several landmark cases, including the one pertaining to the National Citizens Register (NRC).
Justice SA Bobde
Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, who will succeed Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, November 17, started his career at the Bombay High Court as an additional judge in 2000 before being appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court two years later. The Maharashtra-born judge, who was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2013, will be the top judge of the country for 18 months before his tenure expires. It should be stated here that recently he had termed the Ayodhya case as ‘one of the most important in the world’.
DY Chandrachud
He is the son of YV Chandrachud, the longest-serving Chief Justice of India. Justice DY Chandrachud was appointed as a Supreme Court judge in May 2016. He had earlier served in the Bombay High Court and the Allahabad High Court. A Harvard law graduate, Justice Chandrachud is known to have overturned several rulings that were believed to have turned obsolete with the passage of time. Some such verdicts, including those on the adultery law and the right to privacy, were handed down from his father himself. DY Chandrachud was also a visiting professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Mumbai and the Oklahoma University School of Law in the United States.
Justice Ashok Bhusan
Justice Ashok Bhushan, who launched his career in 1979, practised as an advocate in the Allahabad High Court before being elevated to the post of judge in April 2001. He was transferred to the Kerala High Court in July 2014, and took charge as its Acting Chief Justice a few months later. Justice Bhushan was appointed to the Supreme Court May 13, 2016.
Justice Abdul Nazeer
Justice Abdul Nazeer enrolled as an advocate in February 1983 and practised in the Karnataka High Court for 20 years. He was appointed as an additional judge at the court in February 2003 and turned permanent the following year. He was elevated to the Supreme Court February 17, 2017. Justice Abdul Nazeer made headlines in August 2017, when he – along with then Chief Justice JS Khehar – ruled that while the practice of triple talaq is ‘sinful in theology’, the Supreme Court cannot interfere in personal laws.
PNN & Agencies