“I upheld the dignity of the Court and nobody can point a finger at me” – Former CJI VN Khare

Although born in an illustrious family of lawyers and freedom fighters, the young VN Khare was only interested in sports, and little else. Ask him about his early years in Allahabad and he quickly declares, “I barely managed to pass.”.Justice Khare took up law primarily because his father was a lawyer, joining the profession in 1962. That is when he began to take law seriously, realizing, rather early on, that without merit one cannot succeed in the profession..“I worked hard. I was such a busy lawyer, I never saw the sun set.” .Recalling the early years in the profession, Justice Khare says,.“Those days were different. The kind of litigations at that time was different. There were conventional types of cases. Now, the pattern of litigation has undergone a change.”.Initially working in his father’s chamber and then with his uncle, SC Khare, he found success at a rather young age..It was Justice Khare who represented Indira Gandhi in her legal battle against Raj Narain, in a dispute that eventually led to the imposition of Emergency for 19 months. Quickly brushing aside questions of his take on the emergency, especially the case that led to it, he emphatically declares, “I will not talk what brought the Emergency but for the client, the effort of the lawyer is to do as much as you can.”.He does, however, mention that pictures of Indira Gandhi and Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, the judge who set aside Gandhi’s election, were splashed in all the papers, with him by their side. In fact, Justice Sinha’s judgment also disqualified Gandhi from standing for elections for six years, though this part of the judgment was stayed. It was a judgment that cost Sinha a spot in the Supreme Court..Justice Khare himself was offered judgeship at a very young age, initially declining to join the bench. He did eventually agree, his acceptance based on the same reason as was his decision to join the legal profession..“My father wanted to see me on the Bench. If I hadn’t accepted it, I would have been one of the top lawyers in the country.”.He joined the Allahabad High Court and ultimately became the acting Chief Justice before being transferred to Calcutta as Chief Justice. Elevated to the Supreme Court in 1996, he became the Chief Justice of India in 2002..“Who knows the future?”.Quick to deny when asked if he regrets joining the judiciary, he says,.“My father wanted it and he told me that if you accept it, you are going to be the Chief Justice of India. I didn’t know then. Who knows the future?”.As his father predicted, he did become the Chief Justice of India..“And, he was alive till the date when it was known that I am going to be Chief Justice of India and he died after that.”.Moving on to his experience in the Supreme Court, where he spent nearly eight years, he professed,.“It was a satisfying experience. I changed criminal jurisprudence. My view was that if the investigation is faulty, the matter should be re-investigated and re-tried. It was unheard of, back then. I gave important decisions in the matter of environmental, forests and other public interest litigations. I also brought CNG to Delhi. In taxation matters, I settled the important issue of levy to tax on inter-State sale.”.Throughout the course of the interview, Khare’s phone refuses to stop ringing. It was, frequently, the media calling him to get his views on the Bills passed by Parliament, replacing the existing collegium system with the National Judicial Appointments Commission. Visibly frustrated with the constant questioning, handing over the phone to me, and asking me to speak on his behalf..As for his views on the NJAC, Justice Khare believes, that “No system is bad. The system is not at fault.”.“Take the case before 1993, the British established high courts and followed the procedure that was followed in Britain, then. In that procedure, the primacy of appointment of judges was with the executive of course with the consultation of the CJI. This primacy continued till the year 1993. This system gave such eminent judges! Even the law was and fundamental rights were expanded.Rightly or wrong, in the beginning of 1970s, some ideas arose about the ‘committed judiciary’, an ideology initiated by then Union Minister of Steel, Mohan Kumaramangalam, followed by the superseding of three judges in the appointment of the Chief Justice of India. From the 70’s onwards, political appointments were taking place.”.While admitting some aberrations have taken place, Justice Khare feels the system is not to blame; rather everything depends on the people who are manning the system. .“This is now being replaced by the system of Judicial Appointments Commission – let us see how it works. I welcome it.”.Justice Khare discerns certain procedural faults in the new system, including the appointment of “eminent persons” in the commission..“Instead of “eminent persons”, they should have said “eminent jurists”. That would have been descriptive and within the realm of law. Eminent person can be anyone; it could be Kapil Dev or Sachin Tendulkar. The expression is so wide; they haven’t defined the term.”.He is concerned about the “kind” of eminent persons who will be appointed and how they can be removed..Another point of concern is that if any two members do not want to appoint a particular candidate, the appointment cannot go through..“This makes the system vulnerable and inevitably leading to a deadlock. Compromises will be made among members of NJAC eventually leading to compromised candidates being selected. Unless the CJI or other members compromise – “two yours and two mine”, it won’t work. I am not saying they would do it but it may happen – if not in this government but when the next government comes. The very purpose for which the system is being changed will be defeated. Also the primacy of the Supreme Court has been completely removed.”.Like a lot of members of the judiciary, Justice Khare too feels there should be “dominance” of the judiciary in the Judicial Appointments Commission. And one workable solution is to give the CJI the deciding vote, in cases where there is a difference of opinion..“This system may work initially but ultimately, you will notice that the system is vulnerable. Again, I emphasize that the system is not bad. It will depend on the kind of people you will put in it.”.The collegium system lacks inputs about the judges to be appointed..“We do not have an agency like IB attached to the judiciary, in the Supreme Court. We can observe their performances through (their) judgments, but a judge may be involved in other activities. To find out, we have to depend on his reputation at the bar and take the opinion of senior lawyers. We never had the option of getting confidential information about the candidates.”.“Instead of changing the system, they could have put an agency with the Supreme Court, which is a better option than passing legislation.”.Recently, former Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, has also criticized the collegium system.. “I don’t subscribe to Katju. He is (also) in the habit of doing it. Why is he saying right now? Why did he not say when the occasion was there? There was a PIL filed by Kamini Jaiswal- Shanti Bhushan argued it and a verdict was given in 2009. Why has a buried matter has been taken out after so many years?”.We drift away from the collegium system towards another the challenge of pendency..Justice Khare is very proud that he had managed to bring down the pendency to 19,000 cases..“It has changed considerably. I would get 85 SLPs listed in a day and would check how many were dismissed.”.Probe further on the solutions to handle the huge pendency now, he avers that it all depends on the Chief Justice of India..However, he completely disagrees with former CJI Lodha’s recommendation of 365 workdays..“It is impossible!”.“To bring down pendency, we need more infrastructure, we need to increase the strength of judges. If the government spends, Rs. 10,000 crore on the judiciary, you will see how the system changes. Right now the Government spends a meager sum of Rs. 600 crore on the Judiciary.”.“Government should also enforce strict rule of law through speedy justice and we definitely need autonomous investigating agencies and prosecution agencies. All this will go a long way in reducing the pendency and checking corruption.”.Post-retirement, Justice Khare is involved in arbitrations. “I am enjoying it and that keeps me busy. Otherwise, what do I do? I have not accepted any government job.”.On judges taking post retirement jobs, Justice Khare says,.“The government only makes these provisions. There are provisions in different Acts that the retired High Court judge should chair the tribunal or appellate authority. Why make this provision then? Some people like it; they will take it up.”.He wraps up the interview with the words,.“I upheld the dignity of the Court and dignity of the judiciary. And nobody can point a finger at me.”