Much work ahead for new Chief Justice of India

Justice Altamas Kabir is well equipped to handle the diverse responsibilities in chairing the SC but his tenure is short

Visitors to the Supreme Court next week are bound to be struck by the contrasting styles of Chief Justice S H Kapadia, who has just retired, and the new Chief Justice of India (CJI), Altamas Kabir.

Kapadia disposed of 50-odd cases in two hours and there was hardly any sitting in the afternoon. His successor has a slower rate, an average of 15 cases in that time. He gives ample time to all parties to present their case in their own way, and writes clear judgments.

CJI Kapadia specialised in tax laws and grilled lawyers who were weak in this field. CJI Kabir is more or less a generalist, equally good in civil and criminal matters. He was born in Bengal and started his career in the district courts of Kolkata. Later, he was elevated to the Calcutta High Court and then became CJ of the Jharkhand High Court. In 2005, he became an SC judge.

As the 39th CJI, he has little time to make substantive changes on the administrative side, as he retires next July. With two months of summer vacation, the effective reign is about seven months.

However, he can take up some important cases, gathering dust for months, if not years. The judgment on setting up a judicial mechanism to bring back unaccounted money cached abroad was caught in a controversy over the SC’s power. It was referred to a larger bench and has not been heard of since. Another controversial judgment waiting for a relook by a constitution bench is the ruling that mere membership of an extremist organisation like the Naxalites would not make a person a terrorist, unless there was active involvement.

There are also several decade-old issues, referred to a larger bench and gathering dust. One task for the new CJI would be to bring these back to the active dossier.

CJI Kabir has delivered certain landmark decisions on the power of the presiding officer of a legislature vis-a-vis the judiciary, on which there has been much conflict. Today, sitting with the outgoing CJI, he quashed the Punjab and Haryana HC order which had restrained five Haryana Janhit Congress MLAs from joining the ruling Congress till the Speaker decided on their disqualification.

Earlier, he had quashed the Speaker’s order on disqualification of Bharatiya Janata Party legislators in Karnataka. Another significant ruling was on whether a member of Parliament suspended from a political party could continue as one. His judgment stated that even after being removed or suspended from a party, the person could continue as an MP and participate in Parliament and its proceedings, including being eligible to vote.

TOUGH DECISIONS

The two-and-a-half years of the tenure of outgoing Chief Justice S H Kapadia saw scams mushrooming on several fronts. He took firm decisions in favour of probity and justice in the major cases below:

• His bench quashed the appointment of P V Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner, a huge embarrassment for the government
• He prohibited mining and transport of minerals from three districts in Karnataka and ordered a CBI probe into the activities of the mining mafia on the Andhra-Karnataka border
• His bench held the income tax department was wrong in demanding Rs 11,000 crore from Vodafone, leading to Budget changes invoking retrospective taxation
• His bench upheld the Right to Education Act, making compulsory the education of children from six to 14 years
• A constitution bench headed by him ruled that the creamy layer in the SC/ST category should be excluded from reservation and promotions, delivering another blow to the government
• A constitution bench headed by him tried to draft guidelines for media reporting of courts, but did not do so in the end; instead, he allowed courts to impose restrictions in specific cases

A tricky issue before him is the contempt action against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Another sensitive case is the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into a case of disproportionate assets against Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh and members of his family.

As with his predecessors, he faces the challenge of mounting arrears, at the apex court and all over the country. It requires innovative solutions to make even a dent on this problem. The shortness of his tenure would be his greatest handicap.