Ajit Nath Ray (29 January 1912 – 25 December 2009) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 25 April 1973 till his retirement on 28 January 1977. Ray was the lone dissenter among the eleven Supreme Court judges that examined the constitutionality of the Bank Nationalization Act, in 1969. He had come to his appointment to the Court via Presidency College,

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, and the Calcutta High Court. His son Justice Ajoy Nath Ray was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Controversial appointment

In August 1969, he was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice of India in April 1973. His appointment as CJI came on the heels of a dissenting opinion in the Keshavanand Bharti case which gave rise to the

Basic structure doctrine The basic structure doctrine is a common law legal doctrine that the constitution of a sovereign state has certain characteristics that cannot be erased by its legislature. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and ...

of the Indian Constitution. This appointment superseded three senior judges of the Supreme Court,

Jaishanker Manilal Shelat Justice Jaishanker Manilal Shelat (16 July 1908 – 1 November 1985) was a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from February 1966 to April 1973. Before that, he served as the third Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat serving from May 19 ...

, AN Grover and

K. S. Hegde Kowdoor Sadananda Hegde (11 June 1909 – 24 May 1990) was an Indian jurist and politician who served as a judge in the Supreme Court of India and later as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Hegde founded the Nitte Education Trust. He is the father o ...

, and was viewed as an attack on the independence of the Judiciary. This was unprecedented in Indian legal history, and has been called the "blackest day in Indian democracy". It was marked by widespread protests by bar associations and legal groups across India. The protests continued for many months and on 3 May 1976 all legal groups in India observed a "Bar solidarity day" and stopped from work. Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah (who was CJI earlier) remarked that "this was an attempt of not creating 'forward looking judges' but the 'judges looking forward' to the plumes of the office of Chief Justice". The process continued with the controversial appointment of Justice Beg superseding Hans Raj Khanna in 1977. After becoming Chief Justice, A.N. Ray more than shared the government's economic viewpoint – he developed an adulatory attitude towards Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He made himself amenable to her influence by telephoning her frequently, and also ask her personal secretary's advise on simple matters, conveying the impression that Prime Minister's views might be heard concerning an ongoing court-case. Ultimately, the powers of the Judiciary over judicial appointments was re-established under the

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

government with

Shanti Bhushan Shanti Bhushan (born 11 November 1925) is an Indian politician and lawyer. He served as the Law Minister of India holding office at the Ministry of Law and Justice from 1977 to 1979 in the Morarji Desai Ministry. He is a senior advocate of the ...

as law minister through various Constitutional amendments. Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla (also known as the ''

Habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

case'') is a major decision during his tenure as Chief Justice.

References

External links

Brief biography at http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/
Chief justices of India 1912 births 2010 deaths Judges of the Calcutta High Court 20th-century Indian judges University of Calcutta alumni 20th-century Indian lawyers Presidents of the International Law Association {{India-law-bio-stub