Justice DY Chandrachud: 50th Chief Justice of India

October 11, 2022

Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud is set to become the 50^th Chief Justice of India (CJI) in November 2022.

Key facts

The current CJI Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit nominated Justice DY Chandrachud as his successor during a meeting involving other judges of the Supreme Court held on October 11, 2022.
The CJI’s recommendation to the government will kick off the process for the appointment of the 50^th Chief Justice of India.
If this appointment is approved by the Central Government, Justice DY Chandrachud would be the first second-generation Chief Justice of India.
Justice DY Chandrachud’s father – Justice YV Chandrachud – was the 16^th Chief Justice of India.
Justice YV Chandrachud became the CJI in 1978. He held this position for the longest tenure of seven years. His son, Justice DY Chandrachud, has been a Supreme Court Justice for two years – the longest in the recent past.
Justice YV Chandrachud sentenced Sanjay Gandhi to jail in a case concerning the film “Kissa Kursi Ka” – a political satire film that was banned during the time of National Emergency.
During his tenure as a SC judge, DY Chandrachud had overturned two of the judgements made by his father. These cases concern adultery and the right to privacy.
In 2017, the top court involving Justice DY Chandrachud and other judges overruled the 1975 ruling in the infamous Habeaus Corpus case, which allowed the suspension of the right to life during emergency. In 1975, the former CJI Chandrachud was among the four in five judges who upheld the President’s order to impose emergency in the country.
Justice DY Chandrachud also overruled another landmark judgement of his father that upheld the colonial era adultery law. Justice Chandrachud struck down this law and voiced that it is a “codified rule of patriarchy”.
Other landmark judgements involving DY Chandrachud concern euthanasia, entry of women into Sabarimala, decriminalization of homosexuality, abortion rights, the Hadiya case, medical college cases and the PIL of mandatorily playing the national anthem in cinema halls.