Parents didn't come from wealthy families; found alternative means after land acquired under ceiling laws: CJI DY Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on Saturday highlighted how his parents' did not belong to wealthy families but had to make sacrifices to ensure that their children had a proper education and upbringing. .The CJI was speaking at an event organised by the Bombay High Court to felicitate him. "I think I should begin by acknowledging that I am here because of the sacrifices of my parents. They didn't belong to wealthy families. We had some lands but they were all taken away under the Agricultural Ceiling laws. My grandfather said that we will not contest the tillers, who represented the soil. So the family moved on and tried to find alternative means."CJI Chandrachud's father, Justice YV Chandrachud was also a former Supreme Court judge and the longest serving CJI in the history of the apex court.CJI Chandrachud then spoke about how his parents began by living in a small chawl (a basic tenement common in western India). "My mother would carry clothes on her head near the closest water-tank to wash clothes. Relatives would visit ... And how my father became a lawyer, clients would visit at 5am."The CJI stated that his parents had the vision of sending him and his sister to an English-medium school even as his father had only started learning the language in class 7. "He never had the benefit of foreign education the way we had," the CJI said. (CJI Chandrachud completed his PhD from Harvard University)The CJI also highlighted how he could not begin his law practice for a few years since his father was particular that he should demit office as Supreme Court judge before his son could begin practice. "My father was a very strict man, after I completed my law he said, "I won't allow you to enter so long as I am a judge of the Supreme Court". Now whether I liked it or not, I had to abide by it. So those were the kind of values we were brought up with ... I began my practice at a time when my father had retired. There was an enormous amount of goodwill, and there was also goodwill either to be earned or lost."The CJI also reminisced about how his great great grandmother raised nine children on her own after her then husband had remarried. "She took nine children under her belt, mortgaged her jewellery, and brought them to Pune to chart a new course of life for the children of the family. On the strength of that one woman who mortgaged her jewellery, came the first doctor of our family. My father's uncle became a lawyer ... that is how my family moved from a landed tradition to the intellectual tradition.".The event was also attended by Supreme Court judges, Justices BR Gavai and AS Oka and Dipankar Datta all of whom had earlier served at the Bombay High Court. [Follow our coverage of the event]