Former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was “too deferential to the government” in judicial appointments, The Indian Express quoted former Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul’s unpublished memoir as saying.
Kaul’s memoir Without Fear of Favour is scheduled to be published by Juggernaut later this month. The Indian Express has reviewed the unpublished manuscript.
Kaul, who retired in December 2023 after serving as the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court, wrote in his book that Chandrachud had on one occasion sought the government’s “nod” before the Collegium had formally considered a candidate. He also wrote that the government had raised a “bizarre” query about the caste of a judge candidate from a minority faith.
After joining the Collegium in June 2022, Kaul said that he suggested that Chandrachud and he “face the government together…if one likes since I was not the chief justice and could afford to be the firmer of the two”.
But “Dhananjay [Chandrachud], with a few exceptions, preferred to handle that relationship all on his own”.
Kaul talked about the Collegium’s first major exercise after joining it, when the judges had to fill six vacancies.
He wrote that the members had agreed on five names in advance. But on the way to the meeting, Chandrachud proposed a sixth name, he said.
The other judges resisted the proposal. Kaul...