Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde demitted office upon reaching his retirement day on Friday. The day marked an end to an illustrious legal career for the former Chief Justice, which began with him enrolling as an advocate on 13 September 1978 to retiring as the country’s CJI yesterday. During his eight years as a Supreme Court Justice, including one-and-a-half years as the country’s Chief Justice, SA Bobde presided over and passed monumental verdicts. India’s new Chief Justice – N. V. Ramana was given the oath of office by the President on Saturday morning.
From the Sabarimala issue to dealing with violent CAA agitators in a befitting manner, to even exposing PIL-activists like Prashant Bhushan and their nefarious agenda – the former Chief Justice did it all. Prior to taking over as the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde had been part of crucial benches which delivered landmark judgements – the most important of them being the bench, which decided on the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute. Former CJI Bobde had voted, like all other justices on the bench, in favour of a grand Ram Mandir to be built on the then-disputed site.
As the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde had said last year that the September 2018 judgment of the Supreme Court permitting women to enter the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala was not the last word on the issue, thus paving the way for further judicial recourse to be taken by Swamy Ayyappa devotees. When the anti-CAA protests were peaking, and Islamists across the country indulged in mass acts of violence in cahoots with liberals, CJI Bobde directed them to stop all acts of violence in order to be heard by the country’s highest court.
Importantly, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced courts to move to video conference hearings, a major shift also took place when it came to the filing of cases. The Supreme Court under CJI SA Bobde launched and moved to a new e-filing module – which thus far was hardly brought into use. CJI Bobde took the initiative of digitising the country’s Supreme Court, thus taking the court to the people of India. This led to true democratisation of the institution, particularly at a time when India was fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from leading the digitisation of the Supreme Court, CJI Bobde also made a push, in his final days in office, to bring in the use of Artificial Intelligence in the apex court.
CJI Bobde was much less an interventionist as compared to his predecessors, and possibly, even his successors. He understood the need to keep the Supreme Court out of the realm of the executive and the legislature, unless absolutely necessary otherwise. It is for this very reason that calls to have the Citizenship Amendment Act nullified or those relating to the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370 to be overturned were not excessively deliberated upon.
Who can forget how the former CJI thrashed PIL-activist and far-Left advocate Prashant Bhushan and fined him Re. 1/- after he was found in contempt of court? The lasting legacy of SA Bobde as CJI, however, will be the crucial decisions he made in his final days in office in order to address the woes of the judiciary across the country. Whether it be the pendency of cases or the massive judicial vacancies across the nation, CJI Bobde passed rulings, which would alleviate the massive manpower crunch which the Indian judiciary faces, while also simultaneously ridding it of its all-pervasive sense of lethargy soon.
SA Bobde was one of the mightiest justices the Supreme Court has had in a long time. He was mighty as he understood the need to not overstep his authority and let the executive and legislature function properly without largescale intervention by the apex court.