Judges citing 'divine or bovine intervention' to write judgments violate oath to Constitution: Justice Rohinton Nariman

Former Supreme Court of India Justice Rohinton Nariman recently took a dim view of judges attributing their judgments to divine intervention.

Whether it is divine or bovine intervention, allowing the same to influence judgments would be a violation of the oath taken by the concerned judge, Justice Nariman said.

He was responding to a question by an audience member after he delivered the KM Bashir Memorial Lecture organised by the Press Club of Trivandrum in Kerala on September 1.

The audience member asked Justice Nariman what his thoughts were about former Chief Justices of India speaking about divine intervention in delivering judgments.

The question was seemingly in reference to former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud's controversial statement that he had prayed to God to find a solution to the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute which was decided by the Supreme Court in 2019.

"Whether with divine or bovine intervention or any other kind of intervention, if a judge delivers a judgment, he is violating his oath to the constitution. You (judges) have to live only by your oath to the Constitution and the laws. And when you live by your oath to the Constitution and the laws, you certainly bring in your own morality. That's about as far as it goes," Justice Nariman said in response.

In his lecture on the topic 'Fraternity in a secular state: the protection of cultural rights and duties', Justice Nariman said that secularism is indispensable to achieving and maintaining fraternity, a cardinal value of the Constitution of India.

He also opined that contrary to popular discourse, secularism as a principle existed throughout the Constitution, long before the word was added to the Preamble by way of the 42nd Amendment.

"It's a misnomer to say that secularism was introduced only by the 42nd amendment. Some part of it was always already there… Now secularism according to me is an absolute must as a stepping stone towards achieving fraternity. You cannot have fraternity in a theocratic state," he said.

Justice Nariman also spoke about his study of various religious texts and principles while writing his latest book, An Ode to Fraternity, which is an exploration of world religions.