India's 50th CJI DY Chandrachud's Journey Has Many Transformative Milestones

India's 50th CJI DY Chandrachud

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

A supreme court judge who partially struck down Section 377, supported women's sexual autonomy, ruled in the favor of affirmative action, recognised privacy as a constitutional right and who famously called the 2016 Aadhar card act 'a fraud on the constitution'.

Justice DY Chandrachud took over as the 50th Chief Justice of India, on 9 November 2022 after succeeding Justice UU Lalit. Son of India's 16th and longest-serving CJI, YV Chandrachud, Justice Chandrachud will be the Chief Justice of India for a tenure of two years until November 2024.

Early Life of DY Chandrachud

Justice Chandrachud studied maths and economics at St. Stephens College, Delhi University and later went to Harvard University to pursue masters in law.

In 1998, he was appointed as the senior advocate at Bomaby High Court. Before becoming an apex court judge, he has also served as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Landmark Judgements By DY Chandrachud

Several landmark judgments has been delivered by Justice Chandrachud including the decriminalisation of British-Era law, Section 377.

What is the 'order of nature'? The state cannot decide the boundaries between what is permissible or not. Section 377 is based on deep-rooted gender stereotypes.

Justice DY Chandrachud

Chandrachud has always been hailed for his pro-women, pro-choice stand on abortion.

On 26 September 2022, a Supreme court bench presided by Justice Chandrachud passed a judgment extending benefits of Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act to single and unmarried women.

The law should not decide the beneficiaries of a statute based on narrow patriarchal principles about what constitutes permissible sex.

Justice DY Chandrachud

In September 2018, he ruled out against women of menstruating age being refused entry into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple calling it ‘a form of untouchability’.

Religion cannot be a cover to deny women the right to worship. To treat women as children of a lesser god is to blink at constitutional morality.

Justice DY Chandrachud

In September 2018, he was a part of the five-judge constitution bench which struck down Section 497, dealing with Adultery, of the Indian Penal Code.

He overturned his father’s 1985 judgement which upheld the Adultery law stressing the importance of ‘making judgments relevant to the present-day’.

The law on adultery enforces a construct of marriage where one partner is to cede her sexual autonomy to the other. being antithetical to the constitutional guarantees of liberty, dignity and equality, Section 497 does not pass constitutional muster.

Justice DY Chandrachud

In August 2017, Justice Chandrachud was on the bench that delivered the ‘Puttaswamy judgment’ which held that privacy was a constitutionally protected right he ruled that privacy is intrinsic to life, liberty, freedom and dignity.