Tag Archives: Chief Justice of India – A M Ahmadi

Justice Ahmadi: A Judge With Courage, a Man With a Conscience

March 21, 2023Amazing Feats, LeadersA M Ahmadi, A M Ahmadi - Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of India - A M Ahmadi, CJI A M Ahmadi, Justice Ahmadimpositiveone@gmail.com

Surat, GUJARAT / NEW DELHI :

Justice Ahmadi showed his courage and conviction in upholding the constitutional culture in our diverse system and ensured that the spirit of diversity in the Constitution is not nullified.

Justice A.M. Ahmadi was born in Surat, Gujarat in the year 1932 and passed away on Thursday at 5 am in New Delhi at the age of 91 years. He had an exceptional career, handling the judicial process at all three levels of the judiciary apart from being the chief justice of India for about three years, out of his total term as judge in the Supreme Court for about nine years. I started my practice in the year 2000 but he had already demitted office in 1997, so I had no occasion to see him as a judge. However, in the limited interactions with him and after reading his judgments and lectures, I wanted to write a few lines about him.

As a judge of the Supreme Court of India, he was part of many constitution bench judgments, starting from a five-judge constitution bench judgment in Charan Lal Sahu v Union of India (1989) relating to the constitutional validity of legislation regarding claims of victims of the Bhopal gas leak disaster. In that case, the three-judge majority opinion was written by Justice Mukherjee, while Justice Ahmadi agreed with a partly dissenting opinion written by Justice Ranganathan saying that the old antiquated Act should be drastically amended or freshly enacted, and should contain appropriate provision for the payment of fixed minimum compensation on “no fault liability” during the pending adjudication of the claims by a prescribed forum.

In another Bhopal gas leak case (1991), Union Carbide v. Union of India, Justice Ahmadi along with Justice R. Mishra held that there is no power in court to confer immunity for criminal prosecution and punishment; such immunity may amount to preferential treatment violative of the equality clause. They further stated that the citizen is entitled to be under the rule of the law and not the rule of discretion.

He was also part of a five-judge bench in the Cauvery basin water dispute, where the Ordinance of 1991 by the Karnataka government was held to be beyond the legislative competence of the state and therefore held to be ultra vires.

In the Mandal reservation judgment, he was the part of the majority judgment of the nine-judge bench written by Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy (for three other judges) which was further concurred by separate opinions of two more judges. In another nine-judge bench, which created the Collegium system (the 2nd judges case) for the appointment of judges, he disagreed with the majority judgment, while giving a different interpretation of Articles 124 and 217 of the Constitution of India. However, he still held that the degree of judicial independence is near total after a person is appointed and inducted into the judicial family, and on the administrative side the chief justice of India enjoys limited primacy with regard to managing the court business. At the same time, the president, i.e. the executive, does not enjoy the right of veto in the same sense that the president is not bound to act according to his views. He held that graded weight has to be attached to the views of the chief justice of India.

On the other issue, relating to exclusion of powers of the high court in relation to Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, while heading a seven-judge bench, Justice Ahmadi struck down certain provisions of the Constitution of India introduced through amendment by stating that though power of amending the Constitution is with the Parliament, it cannot be exercised so as to damage the basic features of the Constitution or to destroy its basic structure.

We can also not forget Justice Ahmadi’s concurring view to the majority judgment in the S.R. Bommai case, where he commented on secularism under the Constitution. He stated that India is a country with a rich heritage. Several races have converged in this sub-continent. Consequently, these diversities have thrown up their own problems but the early leadership had showed wisdom and sanctity in tackling them by preaching the philosophy of accommodation and tolerance.

In 1993, the Union government acquired land measuring about 67 acres in Ayodhya, which included the land where the Babri Masjid existed before its demolition in 1992. The Acquisition of Certain Area of Ayodhya Act also declared the abatement of the all the pending legal proceedings. The majority view of the three Judges authored by Justice J.S. Verma upheld the Act in part and held that the acquisition was valid. Justice Ahmadi dissented with the majority view, and agreed with the dissenting opinion written by Justice S.P. Bharucha setting aside the Act in totality. While setting aside the Act, the dissenting opinion noted that “Ayodhya is a storm that will pass. The dignity and honour of the Supreme Court cannot be compromised because of it.”

In my view, the majority opinion was a balancing act by the Supreme Court which paved the way for further judicial proceedings, culminating into a final unanimous verdict of the constitution bench in 2019 completely ousting the Masjid from the place where it stood for a period of more than 400 years.

After demitting office as a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Ahmadi was the chief trustee of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust for a period of over 10 years, which was essentially meant for the victims of the gas tragedy. During his tenure, the hospital was very effectively administered and rendered true public service. He was chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. He conducted arbitrations and delivered lectures on various public fora.

Justice Ahmadi showed his courage and conviction in upholding the constitutional culture in our diverse system and ensured that the spirit of diversity in the Constitution is not nullified by giving certain interpretations which go against the spirit of the Constitution itself. As a judge, he showed judicial statesmanship and took a strong position to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution. He will be remembered amongst those judges who were strong and did not succumb to the will of the executive.

As an academic and a citizen of India, he opposed hate speech, imposition of one culture over the other and arbitrary police power, and propagated unity in diversity and appealed to citizens to treat every denomination as a part of the larger society rather than trying to marginalise certain groups. His wife passed away in August 2022, he has joined her within six months. His son, senior counsel Huzefa Ahmadi, and daughter, advocate Tasneem Ahmadi, will carry forward his legacy.

M.R. Shamshad is an advocate, Supreme Court of India.

Edited by Jahnavi Sen.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Opinion> Law / by M R Shamshad / March 03rd, 2023

How I survived Haj stampede in 2006

September 26, 2015Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Karnataka (under research project), Travel & Tourism, World OpinionA K Pasha, A M Ahmadi - Chief Justice of India, Aftab Kamal Pasha, AK Pasha, Chief Justice of India - A M Ahmadi, CJI A M Ahmadi, Prof A K Pasha, Prof A K Pasha - West Asian Politics - JNU, Prof Aftab Kamal Pasha - JNU, Prof AK Pasha - West Asian Politics- JNUmpositiveone@gmail.com

Mysuru, KARNATAKA / NEW DELHI :

People usually hurry to reach Mina creating tremendous risk for themselves and others. It’s during this ritual that chaos is triggered.

I went for Haj pilgrimage with my wife in December-January 2006. During the journey, we noticed that the Gulf region was unstable owing to the trial of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and emotions were running high among the Arabs. The political fever in the region also spread among Haj pilgrims. Emotions and arguments add to the atmospherics of Haj. One can imagine the energy and excitement of a pilgrimage in which millions of people from diverse linguistic, ethnic and racial backgrounds are united by religion.

Our delegation was special as we were being accompanied by former Chief Justice of India A.M. Ahmadi and other dignitaries from different parts of India. But from the beginning of the journey, I saw that arrangements on the ground were not quite right. The Saudi officials gave out instructions only in Arabic, though most of the pilgrims were unfamiliar with the language.

Countries that send the largest number of pilgrims are from South and Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India. People from this region speak many languages. Special attention is needed for the elderly, many of whom undertake foreign travel for the first time and, therefore, are quite disoriented and find it difficult to adjust to sudden orders yelled out in Arabic by policemen.

Also, the Saudi rules aim at segregation of men and women which creates a lot of problems for first-time travellers from our region. Often families which are separated by the Saudi police have to endure hardship, which is multiplied because neither the pilgrims nor the police can understand each other.

The process of Haj starts from Mina where one has to begin early after a prayer, followed by the circumambulation of the holy mosque Kaaba. The pilgrimage ends at Mina following the ritual of ‘Stoning the Shaitan.’ This last ritual at Mina needs to be completed before sunset and people usually hurry to reach Mina creating tremendous risk for themselves and others. It’s during this ritual that chaos is triggered.

On January 12, as we were returning to Mina for the last ritual of Haj, we saw the big stampede from a distance as waves of people collided. Dust and fear enveloped us. Our group stopped midway out of fear and went back to Mecca.

Next morning, we started early at 3 a.m. for the dash to Mina. On the way, we saw huge piles of shoes, clothes, and water bottles left behind by the stampede victims being loaded onto the trucks by the police. Officials informed us that around 350 people had died in the stampede and hundreds more were injured. The possessions of the pilgrims left behind made me suspicious of the official account.

The road to Mina which is where the stampedes often happen is very risky as it’s the only one for the journey to Mina and for returning to Mecca. I am told that the Saudi government has created an alternative route for the pilgrims returning to Mecca but that route is longer and many pilgrims continue to return by the old, shorter and narrow route which puts them at risk.

Year after year, stampedes have taken place on the same route near Mina, yet the Saudi authorities have failed to do anything to reduce the risk.

The occasion of Haj brings more than three million pilgrims to Mecca. A number of factors can trigger a crisis and a stampede on the ground where the crowd is united by religion and divided by political sentiments of the Arab countries. Sabotage is often suspected when such tragedies take place.

The Saudi government should also be open to learning from other countries where a large number of pilgrims congregate, for example in India’s Kumbh Melas and in the Vatican where authorities take care of the linguistic differences while managing people. There is no harm in learning from others.

Prof. Pasha teaches West Asian politics in JNU.

(As told to Kallol Bhattacherjee)

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National / by Prof. A.K. Pasha / September 26th, 2015