Sealing order was most difficult to make: Sabharwal

New Delhi, Jan 13 (UNI) Outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) Y K Sabharwal on his last day in office today admitted that the order on sealing was the most difficult decision for him as a judge.

He also admitted that personally he was opposed to death sentence and was for the abolition of the same.

Justice Sabharwal addressing his last press conference as head of the Indian judiciary this morning at his official residence , however, hastened to add that so long as the capital punishment was on the statute book the courts will have to award the same in appropriate cases.

Only yesterday a four-judge bench headed by him dismissed the curative petition filed by Mohammed Afzal facing death sentence in Parliament attack case, against the capital punishment awarded to him by the trial court and upheld by the High Court and the apex court, holding that the petition has no merit.

Justice Sabharwal whose 15 month-tenure as CJI has been marked by seeming confrontation with the legislature and the executive, however, thanked God for being very kind to him.

Justice Sabharwal's landmark judgments include the apex court ruling on expulsion of a sitting MP by the Parliament, judgment on ninth schedule holding that fundamental rights form integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India and any violation or infringment of Part-III of the Constitution will be open to judicial review even if the law has been placed in the Ninth Schedule.

The most controversial ruling given by him was the sealing of commercial premises operating from the residential areas in Delhi which led to long agitation by the traders in the national capital backed by the political parties. The CJI who finishes his 23-year-long innings as judge first in Delhi High Court, later as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court and finally the head of country's judiciary, categorically said in his judgment dated September 29, 2006 that legislature lacked competence to frame laws aimed at upsetting and nullifying the judgments of the courts.

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