 In April 1973, Shelat was the seniormost Supreme Court judge followed by A. N. Grover and K. S. Hegde JJ who were superseded by Justice A. N. Ray in being named as the Chief Justice of India.This is partly attributed to their being on the side of the majority judgement in "Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala" which went against the government of the day.Both Hegde and Shelat resigned from the court at the end of that month while Grover did so a month later.