For many people, the Delhi High Court, in recent years, has emerged as an alternative to the Supreme Court in deciding cases involving the public interest. The credit for this goes partly to the distinguished judges who comprise it. This became clear when Chief Justice A.P. Shah retired on February 12, two days after delivering the Manushi judgment. The age of retirement of High Court judges is 62.
Many people recalled the fine attributes that ensured for Justice Shah such a unique place in the annals of the higher judiciary despite not having served the Supreme Court. After all, he was one of the 43 Chief Justices of 18 High Courts who could not make it to the Supreme Court in the last 10 years. His non-elevation due to the non-transparent functioning and lack of consensus within the Supreme Courts collegium was widely deplored within the legal community.
An elevation in time to the Supreme Court would have enabled him to continue his contributions as a judge for three more years, as judges of the Supreme Court retire at the age of 65. Observers paid tributes to Justice Shahs extraordinary legal acumen and commitment to socio-economic values of the Constitution. As a judge, he displayed remarkable qualities of liberalism and sensitivity attributes admired by practising lawyers and litigants alike.
Justice Shah is known for writing several landmark judgments during his earlier terms as a judge in the Bombay High Court and as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Defending the freedom of speech and expression, he once quashed the orders of the government not to telecast the national award-winning documentaries based on the terrorism in Punjab and the Ayodhya issue. He directed Doordarshan to telecast them. He struck down the decision of the Central Board of Film Certification not to release the documentary film Aakrosh on the communal pogrom in Gujarat and directed grant of certificate to it.
In B.G. Deshmukh v. State of Maharashtra, he directed the Shiv Sena to pay damages for encroaching on the rights of citizens during a bandh sponsored by it. Through another judgment, he restrained the Central and Western Railways, the Railway Police and the Municipal Corporation in Mumbai from taking any action against visually challenged vendors/hawkers and directed them to frame a scheme to provide them with livelihoods.
During his tenure in the Bombay High Court, he also protected the rights of students suffering from dyslexia and issued directions to ensure the implementation of the reservation policy for the disabled in the State government, State corporations and local bodies. He always adopted a proactive attitude towards the rights of disabled people.
As the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Shah is well known for heading the Benches that delivered the recent decisions in the Naz Foundation and the judges assets cases. In the Naz Foundation case, the Central government, which had opposed the argument for decriminalising Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, accepted the High Courts reasoning decriminalising adult consensual sex, and decided not to appeal against it.
In the judges assets cases, the Supreme Court is yet to take a decision whether to appeal against the High Courts judgment holding the 1997 and 1999 resolutions requiring declaration of assets binding on Supreme Court and High Court judges. All these pronouncements have enhanced his stature as a people-friendly judge.
Even after retirement, Justice Shah will continue to be qualified for appointment as a judge in the Supreme Court for the next three years. The qualification mentioned in Article 124(3) (a) of the Constitution only requires that the appointee should have been a High Court judge for at least five years.
V. VenkatesanCOMMents
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