OTV Foresight 2025: Former CJI DY Chandrachud shares insights on Ayodhya judgement and what keeps him going

Former Chief Justice of India, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud opened up on a lot of topics, including the historic Ayodhya judgement and the things that he kept in mind before delivering any verdict while keeping calm during any conflict, in a fireside chat with Odisha Television Limited (OTV) during its annual convention ‘Foresight 2025’ in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

While addressing the ‘OTV Foresight 2025 ’, the former CJI said that the Ayodhya issue was a complex one and a lot of changes took place in the country over it. While delivering the 1045-pages verdict, the former CJI said, “Whenever we hear such cases, we need to understand that it was the first appeal in Supreme Court as first judgement was given by Allahabad High Court. Be it the first appeal of Ayodhya or any other case, you as a judge apply the common principles to hear the first appeal. The principle of Judiciary is to apply the common principles.”

“In Ayodhya case, a lot of interesting things came before us including records of 30,000 pages, 300 to 400 years old documents in several languages including Sanskrit, Urdu, Gurumukhi and others and examination of lot of witnesses. There was time constraint as well as CJI Justice Gogoi was to retire…,” said the former CJI.

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What Helped Chandrachud Keep His Calm in Courtroom:

“When I visited my village in Maharashtra, people asked me how you keep calm despite conflict and tensions in the courtroom. As everything is live streamed, people see that I never shout. I said that every person goes through struggles in life, but everyone has different ways and mantra to deal with it,” said the former CJI.

“I wake up at 3:30 am and do yoga, meditation and puja everyday for one hour. I don’t worship one deity…The essential humanity of all individuals is something which every religion teaches us about.  I have been reading an interesting book titled, India’s Ideas of freedom. The book has been developed by seven greatest thinkers known to modern India and they speak of internal freedom and external freedom. Internal freedom is through which you transform yourself and the external freedom is which you derive from transforming society,” said the former CJI.

He further said, “No matter whatever faith in any religion or any deity you have or you don’t have it, it is a personal choice. But if you keep faith in any religion, they teaches that be it any human being or a living thing, we should respect it and treat it equally so that every citizen who comes to seek justice before the court is equal in the eyes of the court, irrespective of the faith they profess.”

Former CJI Chandrachud’s Mantra to Avoid Injustice:

The former Chief Justice of India revealed that whenever he climbed the court steps, he used to chant the ‘Navkar’ mantra so that injustice is not meted out to anyone as the judiciary is a human system and you deliver whatever you feel right at that time. You do not have time that you hear today and decide to give bail or not after 15 days. There are several cases when you have to deliver at the same point of time, he said.

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Do Judges Get Nervous? Here’s What Chandrachud Says

Every judge is nervous in the beginning, but with time you become more responsible. “When I was in High Court, there is Supreme Court to rectify if any mistake is committed. But when you come to Supreme Court, there is no more court above it to rectify any mistake. Hence, when we take any decision, we need to be more careful and it is a big task and responsibility,” said the former CJI.