CJI Thakur’s Tenure Will Be Remembered for Tussles With the Centre

Outgoing CJI Justice TS Thakur’s tenure will be remembered for a strained executive-judiciary relationship.

The tenure of outgoing Chief Justice of India Justice T S Thakur has been in focus for the regular tussles between the judiciary and the government.

Justice Thakur, who demits office on January 3 2017, on several occasions questioned the government on the delay in filling up vacancies in the higher judiciary.

Thakur’s one-year tenure witnessed many such occasions – both within the court and outside – where the judiciary and the Modi government were at the loggerheads over the appointment of judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court.

A constitutional bench headed by Justice J S Khehar in a 4:1 majority order rejected the NJAC Act as 'unconstitutional and void' in October 2015. Since then, the executive-judiciary relationship was marked by many such confrontations. Justice J S Khehar will take over as the next Chief Justice of India on January 4.

Here are some of the observations made by the Supreme Court and Justice T S Thakur which bring out the judiciary’s stormy ties with the Centre during his tenure.