She retired as a Supreme Court judge in October 2014, with a career marked by several important judgments and a self-effacing image. In the 11 years since, however, the spotlight has erringly found Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
In the latest of a series of high-profile assignments, the government has picked the 76-year-old to head the Eighth Central Pay Commission, which will recommend changes to the salaries and benefits of Central government employees.
The three-member panel is to submit its recommendations – covering about 50 lakh Central government employees, including defence personnel, and around 69 lakh pensioners – in 18 months. The Seventh Central Pay Commission had recommended a 23.55% increase in pay, allowances and pension, which had led to an additional annual outgo of Rs 1.02 lakh crore for the Central government.
If the scale of the task at hand is enormous, the government has repeatedly shown its faith in Justice Desai for such matters.
Elevated to the Supreme Court in 2011 from the Bombay High Court, Justice Desai’s first major post-retirement role was as chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity from 2014 to 2017. This was followed by a tenure as the head of the Advance Ruling Authority for Income Tax.
Since 2018, Justice Desai has been chairing the Lokpal Search Committee, which recommends names for positions of chairperson and other members of the anti-corruption ombudsman.
The Modi government has also fallen back on her for issues with more complex social and legal questions.
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In 2020, a year after the abrogation of Article 370 and scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the Narendra Modi government named Justice Desai the head of Delimitation Commission for the new Union Territory – a politically sensitive assignment with a lot at stake for the Centre. For J&K, it was to be its first delimitation exercise since 1995.
The time given to the panel headed by Justice Desai was one year, but this was extended several times as the National Conference’s three MPs initially boycotted its proceedings.
The commission submitted its final report in May 2022, increasing the Assembly seats in J&K (with Ladakh now out) by 6 in Jammu to 43, and 1 in Kashmir to 47, and made changes within the structure of the existing Assembly seats as well. In the case of the Lok Sabha seats of J&K, the commission redrew the boundaries of Anantnag and Jammu.
All political parties in J&K, barring the BJP, contested the findings of the panel. However, these ultimately paved the way for the first Assembly polls in J&K after the Article 370 changes, held last year.
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Justice Desai next headed an expert committee set up by the BJP government in Uttarakhand in 2022 to examine the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), in keeping with the promise made by the party in its manifesto for the state Assembly elections.
The same year, Justice Desai was appointed as Chairperson of the Press Council of India, and continues in that role.
In July 2023, The Indian Express reported that the Union government was expected to use the Uttarakhand UCC panel’s findings as a template for drafting its own UCC Bill. In February 2024, the Justice Desai panel submitted its final report to the Uttarakhand government, and the state soon became the first in the country to implement a UCC.
Earlier this year, BJP-ruled Gujarat announced a five-member committee headed by Justice Desai to “assess the need” for a UCC and prepare a draft law for the same. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said the panel was expected to submit its report “within 45 days”, though it has not surprisingly taken longer.
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In July, the Gujarat High Court rejected a petition to include people from the minority community in the panel. A month later, the UCC panel met the Gujarat government for an extension.
Those who know Justice Desai or have worked with her on various panels are not surprised at the government’s faith in her.
Justice Permod Kohli, who was a member of the Uttarakhand UCC committee, described her as “a fine human being” who “created a conducive atmosphere and facilitated complete coordination among members”. Another member, social activist Manu Gaur, pointed to her legal knowledge, adding: “In spite of her age, she was the most active member of the committee.”
Otem Dai, a member of the Lokpal Search Committee, said: “Justice Desai knows procedure well… She allows each of the other nine members on the committee to have their say and believes in building consensus on issues.”
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This approach to functioning was also highlighted by Senior Advocate R C Kodekar, a member of the Gujarat UCC committee. “She meticulously presents her position but at the same time consults everyone and takes their opinions.”
Professor J S Rajput, who served on the Press Council of India with Justice Desai, described her as “considerate, compassionate and competent”. “She went deep into every issue under consideration… She is extremely hard-working and dexterous and provides incisive analysis – which is essential for arriving at the right conclusion in complex cases.”
Born in Mumbai, Justice Desai studied law at Elphinstone College, followed by Government Law College, and joined the legal profession in 1973. She worked in the chambers of Justice S C Pratap, before his elevation as a judge of the Bombay High Court, as well as alongside her father, eminent criminal lawyer S G Samant.
In 1979, Justice Desai was appointed a Government Pleader on the Appellate Side of the Bombay High Court. She steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a Special Public Prosecutor for preventive detention matters in 1986 and eventually the Chief Government Pleader in 1995.
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Her elevation to the judiciary came on April 15, 1996, when she was made a judge of the Bombay High Court. Her tenure in the High Court is best remembered for her confirmation of the death sentence for Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist from the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The Division Bench she headed termed the case “rarest of rare”, observing that the 24-year-old was beyond the scope of rehabilitation.
In September 2011, she was elevated to the Supreme Court under the Congress-led UPA government. During her three-year tenure, she was part of Benches that delivered several landmark verdicts.
In 2013, a Bench including Justice Desai upheld the voter’s right to reject all candidates in an election, paving the way for the ‘None of the Above’ or NOTA option on EVMs. That same year, she was part of a Constitution Bench that made it mandatory for police to register an FIR upon receiving a complaint about a cognisable offence – a significant step towards police accountability.
Justice Desai was also part of the Supreme Court Bench that rejected pharmaceutical giant Novartis’s patent claim for its cancer drug Glivec, a decision celebrated for making life-saving generic drugs more accessible.
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Her latest role at the Pay Commission, one of India’s most challenging legal and administrative tasks, will require all of her skills.