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Asok Kumar Ganguly
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Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly’s 2G judgment, delivered the day he was to retire, sparked off a huge controversy. “I do not know how I played my innings but I have always tried to play it with a straight bat,” Justice Ganguly, who had earlier set aside land allotment for Sourav Ganguly’s proposed school in Calcutta despite being fond of Dada’s batting style, said in a farewell speech at the top court on February 2.
He spoke to The Telegraph about his heroes Bhagat Singh, Subhas Bose, Vivekananda and Rama Krishna Paramhansa, his admiration for Nehru, important judgments he delivered, constitutional values in the days of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, and his post-retirement plans as he prepares to leave his official residence in Lutyens’s Delhi.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Judges in India have to retire at 65 when they are at their most productive. The government may or may not give them a post-retiral post. What do you think of the government’s pick-and-choose policy?
A: I don’t wish to talk of post-retiral benefits. It will seem as if I am aspiring for one. But I do wish to say that everywhere in the world, in all other countries, democracies, the age of retirement of a Supreme Court judge is much higher.
Q: What are your post-retirement plans?
A: I will concentrate on reading, writing and teaching. I couldn’t read much except legal briefs all these years. Now that I have time, I will read, write and teach. I have received a lot of interesting teaching offers. I may take them up. I will settle down in Calcutta, in my ancestral house in Kidderpore. I shall be living with my brother there.
Q: You were part of a bench that criticised a Supreme Court majority decision to suspend right to life during Emergency. Was it meant to be an apology for Emergency?
A: In review, the question arose whether a court order could violate human rights of citizens. We (me, Justice Aftab Alam) said that it could and cited the 1976 judgment in ADM Jabalpur case as an example. (He quotes the 1976 decision) “The instances of this court’s judgement violating the human rights of the citizens may be extremely rare, but it cannot be said that such a situation can never happen.” (The majority judgment in that case had held that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution could be suspended during Emergency). The minority view (by Justice H.R. Khanna) was the correct view in that case. The Constitution was later amended by the 44th Amendment to reflect this. These amendments make it clear that the right to life cannot be suspended during Emergency.
Q: There’s much criticism of the judicial appointments process. What are your views on this?
A: “Only the best judicial talent should come to the Supreme Court. In deciding that, seniority should not be the only criteria.” (Justice Ganguly quotes excerpts from a law commission report). “The (Supreme) Court must consist of judges, who taken as a body, are, as lawyers and men of vision, superior to the body of judges manning the high courts. Such a result can be achieved and maintained only by the exercise of courage, vision and imagination in the selection of judges made with an eye solely to their efficiency and capacity.”
Q: Some recent Supreme Court judgments have evoked a lot of controversy. The top court has spoken of FDI and investor confidence in its Vodafone judgment. What are the factors that a judge keeps in mind in deciding a case?
A: Socialism is still a basic feature of our Constitution. Justice, social and economic, is the core of the mandate of the Constitution as laid down in the Preamble. A judge has to uphold rule of law and do it in such a way that the judicial process becomes manifest, the common man has a sense of credibility in the process. A judge has to act according to these constitutional values in discharge of his duties and he takes an oath to uphold these values.
(He quotes one of his earlier judgments expressing disquiet over changing the judicial approach) “I am of the view that any attempt to dilute the constitutional imperatives in order to promote the so-called trends of globalisation, may result in precarious consequences. Reports of suicide deaths of farmers from all over the country along with escalation of terrorism are danger signals. At this critical juncture, the judges’ duty, to my mind, is to uphold the constitutional focus on social justice without being in any way misled by the glitz and glare of globalisation.”
(He quotes another brilliant legal mind, Justice Vivian Bose) “After all for whose benefit was the Constitution enacted? I am clear that the Constitution is not for the exclusive benefit of governments and states; it is not only for lawyers and politicians and officials and those highly placed. It also exists for the common man, for the poor and the humble, for who have businesses at stake, for the butcher, the baker and the candle-stick maker.”
(He quotes with approval N.A. Palkhivala’s words from Our Constitution Defaced and Defiled) “Our Constitution is primarily shaped and moulded for the common man. It is a Constitution not meant for the ruler, but the ranker, the tramp of the road, the slave with a sack on his shoulders, picked on with the goad, the man with too weighty a burden, too weary a load.”
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