Saurabh Kirpal explains how judgements depend on individual judges' views

Kirpal is likely to become the first openly gay judge of a constitutional court in the country

Senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal on Monday explained how judgements depend on the views of individual justices and the outcome may vary depending on who is hearing the matter.

"Depending on where your matter goes, who those two judges are, the outcome can be completely, radically different. Some judges will have a very conservative mindset, some will have a liberal mindset, some are inherently anti-government, and some are inherently pro-government. This is not party political, this is not an ideological belief that government is right or wrong, this is just their view," Kirpal was quoted as saying at the Jaipur Literature Festival in a The Times of India report.

Kirpal, son of former Chief Justice of India B N Kirpal, may become the first openly gay judge of a constitutional court in the country if the Centre accepts the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium which has reiterated his name for judgeship in the Delhi High Court.

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The 50-year-old added: "There are 34 judges of the Supreme Court; there are 15 benches sitting at any point of time, between two judges and three judges, and we who practise in that court often laugh and say that there is not one Supreme Court of India; there are 15 Supreme Courts of India."

He also cited the apex court's stands on the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India. He said the same apex court that had dismissed a petition against Section 377 of the IPC in 2013 later delivered a landmark judgment on the subject.

Kirpal, who has been candid about his gay status, was part of the legal team which represented some of the petitioners from the LGBTQ ( lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) group in the landmark case in which the apex court decriminalised consensual sexual act between two adults of same sex in private.

Kirpal studied law at the University of Oxford and did his Master of Law at the University of Cambridge before returning to India following a brief stint at the United Nations in Geneva.

(With inputs from PTI)