The Verdictum: Justice FMI Kalifulla

Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India on April 2, 2012. His tenure lasted around four years, or 1572 days, before his retirement on July 22 of this year, the latest retiree from the apex court..The son of former Madras High Court judge Justice Fakkir Mohamed, Justice Kalifulla enrolled as an advocate in 1975. He worked as a Partner at Chennai law firm TS Gopalan & Co, and appeared for a number of PSUs and banks. He was elevated as a judge of the Madras High Court in 2000. From there, he was transferred to the Jammu & Kashmir High Court in 2011..That same year, he was appointed Chief Justice of the J&K High Court. He was known to have travelled across the troubled state, setting up legal aid clinics throughout. At his farewell last month, Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur heaped praise upon Justice Kalifulla..He was quoted as saying,.“Kalifulla’s transfer to Kashmir from Madras was seen as some kind of national integration to contribute to restoration of the institutional integrity of that state. The kind of work that he did is remembered even now.”.Month-wise distribution of rulings.As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Kalifulla was involved in the passing of 190 orders and judgments, of which he authored 74. The months of July, April and September were his most productive, having made 31, 24 and 23 rulings respectively. The least productive months were November, with a mere 7 rulings and February and August, with 10 rulings each..Day-wise productivity.The number of rulings per day made by Justice Kailfulla plunged to as low as 0.06 in November and rose to 0.2 in the months of April and July..Year-wise distribution of rulings.Justice Kalifulla’s most productive years were his first two as an apex court judge, having made 56 rulings each in 2012 and 2013. That number saw a steady decline in the following years, going as low 27 in his penultimate year. He was involved in 15 rulings this year..YearNo. of Rulings201256201356201436201527201615.Bench-wise distribution of rulings.A significant chunk of Justice Kalifulla’s rulings (59) were made sitting with Justice BS Chauhan. He was part of a Constitution bench seven times and part of a three-judge bench three times. He sat with current Chief Justice of India TS Thakur 15 times and also shared the bench with former CJIs P Sathasivam, RM Lodha and HL Dattu..Case-type distribution of rulings.A majority of matters heard by Justice Kalifulla were criminal appeals (91), followed closely by civil appeals (86). He also decided the fate of 10 writ petitions and one review petition..Notable judgments.In 2012, Justice Kalifulla was part of the bench that heard a challenge to a Gujarat High Court decision quashing a notification of the Gujarat state government which conferred power upon the state to appoint the Secretary to the Government of Gujarat as President of the Revenue Tribunal..The bench found no reason to interfere with the High Court’s decision, holding that the High Court’s assent was required for such an appointment, as per Article 234 the Constitution..He was also part of the bench that directed states and union territories to implement the protective provisions contained in the Protection of Rights of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005..He was part of the Constitution Bench headed by former CJI, RM Lodha that held Section 6-A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. This provision required the Centre’s approval for investigation into offences committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act..In December 2015, he was part of a Constitution bench that had to decide on the remission of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins. It was held that the Tamil Nadu government cannot unilaterally decide on the remission of sentence in cases where the investigation was carried out by Central agencies..He also heard a challenge to a Karnataka government notification directing the mother tongue to be the medium of instruction in primary schools. The Constitution Bench ultimately struck down the notification, holding that Article 350A cannot be interpreted to empower the State to compel a linguistic minority to choose its mother tongue as a medium of instruction..He was also part of a five-judge bench that upheld the constitutional validity of Article 15 (5) of the Constitution..He will be perhaps best known for being part of the benches that regulated the administration of cricket in the country. Along with CJI Thakur, he was responsible for overhauling the functioning of the BCCI..In 2015, that bench directed the formation of a committee headed by RM Lodha to determine, among other things, the punishment to be imposed on those found guilty of match-fixing. More recently, the same bench upheld the recommendations made by the Lodha Committee. In one of his last judgments, it was held that multiple life sentences will run concurrently..Image taken from here.