The Kesavananda Bench

Knowing the Judge, is the last refinement an Advocate can hope for. Gadbois Sir shall be remembered forever for his research on Judges of Supreme Court of India. What a book! I would not have realized…

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The NJAC Judgment is still running its course and at this juncture of history it is difficult to predict what form it shall assume, as it pierces through time. If Kesavananda is anything to go by, 5 in NJAC are already immortal.

Kesavananda is a spectacle. There were 13. And there was indeed A Last Supper. And all changed after.

We talk about the 13. We hate them. We scrutinize them. We love them. We cannot do with or without The Bharti Judgment. But do we know them? They left us one by one, until there were none:

Arun Kumar Mukherjea J – 23^rd October, 1974

Surendra Narayan Dwivedi J – 8^th December, 1974

Jayendra Manilal Shelat J– 1^st November, 1985

Mirza Hameedullah Beg J– 19^th November, 1988

Kawdoor Sadananda Hegde J – 24^th May, 1990

Kutttyil Kurien Mathew J– 2^nd May, 1992

Sarv Mittra Sikri CJI – 24^th September, 1992

Amar Nath Grover J – 13^th July 1993

Pingle Jaganmohan Reddy J – 9^th March, 1999

Devidas Ganpat Palekar J – 9^th December, 2004

Hans Raj Khanna J – 25^th February, 2008

Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud J – 14^th July, 2008

Ajit Nath Ray J. – 25^th December, 2010

On the eve of Diwali, I pay my homage to all 13. Yours was the best light.