[Fact-check] Justice DY Chandrachud does not hold a US Green Card; online trolling against judge intensifies before appointment as CJI

Courts and judges in India are often frequent targets of online trolling. Many a time, bots and troll handles are engaged to amplify opinions against judgments and observations made by courts and judges..A Supreme Court judge is now facing the same, with personal remarks and fake statements circulating against him on social media, particularly Twitter. The Twitter storm comes at a time when Justice DY Chandrachud, the senior-most judge in the apex court, is expected to take over the top job when incumbent CJI UU Lalit demits office on November 8. .For the past few weeks, fake news, half-truths and abuses targeting the judge have been incessantly circulating on social media. It all started when a snapshot of a story by The Hindu on a 2018 judgment delivered by the judge began doing the rounds online..The judgment in question, Joseph Shine v. Union of India, had struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised adultery. In that judgment, Justice Chandrachud in his separate but concurring opinion had batted for the sexual autonomy of married women..The observations were made in the context of the Constitutionality of Section 497 and how the provision was rooted in the treatment of women as 'property' or 'chattel' of husbands, thereby recognising only the husband as the 'aggrieved party' who was entitled to initiate prosecution for an offence under the said provision. Thus, the observations were in the context of whether adultery can be a criminal offence considering the fact that the provision which criminalised adultery was based on Victorian morals which recognised a wife as her husband's property. It was not in the context of discounting adultery as a ground for divorce or other implications on personal law, since the same was not under consideration before the apex court. .However, men's rights groups and those batting for doing away with pro-woman laws have unleashed criticism on the judge for the verdict.Pertinently, both the judgment and the story in The Hindu are from September 2018, more than 4 years ago. That has not deterred the detractors from spewing online hate towards the judge. .While the controversy surrounding the four-year-old verdict spread like virtual wildfire, another claim surfaced on Twitter on Friday - that Justice Chandrachud is a holder of a Green Card, which allows him to live and work permanently in the United States of America. .Bar & Bench did a factcheck and found that the claim was false. The notion that Justice Chandrachud had a Green Card might have originated from the misinterpretation of a tweet by a journalist..Journalist Raghav Ohri had tweeted the following on July 27 regarding an order passed by a Bench headed by Justice Chandrachud which granted bail to Alt News founder Mohammad Zubair:"How a US green card holder, an embattled husband & an Indian news anchor came to the rescue of Zubair. Two of the three previous rulings relied upon by SC were co-authored by Justice Chandrachud who led the Bench that ordered Zubair's release.".The Green Card holder referred to in Ohri's tweet is a litigant in a different case before the apex court. The order passed in that case was relied upon by the Supreme Court while granting relief to Zubair. The tweet might have created an impression that Justice Chandrachud was the Green Card holder that Ohri was referring to. It also might have been the case that this fact was twisted to meet the ends of an agenda..However, these are not the only instances of criticism directed against the judge. In a direct and open criticism of the judge, a video has been tweeted by author Rajiv Malhotra on September 29 with the caption 'Harvard Liberal Arts Infiltrates Supreme Court of India!'.The video itself refers to a book called Snakes in the Ganga authored by Malhotra and Vijaya Viswanathan which alleges that 'American liberal arts' has been imported into India and "this importing has taken over even the Supreme Court of India.""Harvard as you know is what we characterise as the nest of the snakes. We also said that it is Harvard that is producing it and exporting it and this Justice (Justice DY Chandrachud) happens to be a Harvard product," the video alleges, before showing truncated clippings of Justice Chandrachud's speeches.Malhotra has a verified Twitter handle with over 3 lakh followers. The book referred to in the video was slated for launch on October 6..And last but not the least, a document is circulating on messaging platforms including WhatsApp, which is purportedly a complaint filed by one RK Pathan to the President of India against Justice Chandrachud.The complainant who is the President of the Supreme Court & High Court Litigants Association of India has alleged corruption against the judge. .Such frivolous allegations and complaints against judges have surfaced even in the past immediately prior to their elevation as Chief Justice of India. The Court and authorities have, more often than not, overlooked such allegations. It might not be any different this time around.