‘Don’t Need To Be An Atheist To…’: Ex-CJI Chandrachud On ‘Prayed To God’ Before Ayodhya Verdict Remark

<p>Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud clarified his stance on his remarks regarding the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid verdict, asserting that judicial impartiality does not preclude personal faith. As he appeared on BBC’s HARDtalk earlier this week, show host Stephen Sackur asked Chandrachud if he had sought divine guidance before delivering the judgment on the Ayodhya Ram Temple matter, raising concerns about the intersection of faith and a case with deep communal implications. The former chief justice swiftly interrupted the question, dismissing the claim as &ldquo;completely erroneous&rdquo;.</p>
<p>The BBC journalist was referring to a statement attributed to Chandrachud when he was serving as the Chief Justice of India. In October 2024, days before his retirement, the former CJI was reported to have told a gathering at his native Kanhersar village: &ldquo;Very often we have cases but we don&rsquo;t arrive at a solution. Something similar happened during the Ayodhya which was in front of me for three months. I sat before the deity and told him he needs to find a solution&rdquo;.</p>
<p>On November 9, 2019, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi settled the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, which went back more than a century, by paving the way for the construction of the <a title=”Ram temple” href=”https://news.abplive.com/topic/ram-temple-ayodhya” data-type=”interlinkingkeywords”>Ram Temple</a> in Ayodhya. Chandrachud was part of the bench that delivered the historic verdict.</p>
<p>Responding to Sackur’s question if he sought religious guidance as a Hindu to decide what to do in a court of law, the former CJI told the BBC journalist that certain aspects of his statement had not been understood in the right context.</p>
<p>”Stephen, if you look at social media and try and derive what was said by a judge from social media, you’ll get the wrong answers. What I said was this. I was asked specifically, I make no bones of the fact that I’m a man of faith. Our Constitution does not require you to be an atheist to be an independent judge, and I value my faith. But what my faith teaches me is the universality of religion. And irrespective of who comes to my court, and I dare say that applies to other judges in the Supreme Court as well, irrespective of who comes to you as a litigant, you dispense equal and even-handed justice. And therefore, what I said was this, judicial creativity is not just about intellectual ability and skill. It’s also about perception. And we work in areas of conflict. We work in areas of intense conflict. Now, within that area of conflict, how do you find a sense of calm, of equanimity? Different judges have different ways to approach that need for calm and equanimity. For me, My time in meditation in prayer is very important. But my time in meditation and prayer teaches me to be even-handed to every religious group and community in the country,” DY Chandrachud said.</p>
<p><strong>WATCH THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW HERE</strong></p>
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<p>Earlier, after demitting office, CJI had in an interview to news agency ANI explained the context of the same question, and how it was perceived on social media. He told ANI: “Like everything else on social media, what I said has been misconstrued. Because what you say is then sort of compressed into a small short of 20 seconds. And what you said on a particular occasion is then put forth in 20 seconds as your view, which is not so.”&nbsp;</p>