“Plea to gain publicity”: Delhi HC imposes Rs.1 lakh for challenging appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as 50th CJI

The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as the 50th Chief Justice of India (CJI).

While rejecting the plea, a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad imposed Rs. 1 lakh costs on the petitioner, Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari. The division bench also observed that the plea was filed “to gain publicity”.

Justice Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India on November 8, 20220 i.e. Wednesday. President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath of office at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

Chandrachud will be serving as the CJI for two years. He took over former CJI UU Lalit, who retired on November 8, 2022.

The Supreme Court had last week, dismissed a similar plea as misconceived and without merit. The Petitioner Lawyer’s argument, inter alia, was that the next CJI in line Justice DY Chandrachud was not fit to take oath in light of his son appearing in a case in Bombay HC and then him passing an order in the same case.

The then CJI UU Lalit bench found no merit in the allegations of conflict of interest against Justice Chandrachud, accordingly, junked the plea seeking to stall his oath-taking as India’s next Chief Justice.

Case Title: Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari v. Union of India & Ors.