BROTHERS AT WAR
Five Supreme Court judges in the eye of the storm— a look at their career track and antecedents
CHIEF JUSTICE DIPAK MISRA, THE 45TH CJI
TENURE 14 months ending Oct. 2018
FAMILY freedom fighters, politicians and jurists. Grandfather Godabarish Misra, a Congressman, was considered one of the architects of modern Odisha; father Raghunath Misra was a Congress MLA; uncle Ranganath Misra was the 21st Chief Justice of India CLASS ACT studied in Madhusudan Law College, Cuttack
BAR & BENCH practised for 19 years; appointed to the bench of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh high courts in 1996–1997; became Chief Justice of Patna (2009) and Delhi (2010) high courts before joining SC in 2011
KEY CASES
2014: upheld the constitutional validity of Section 499 and 500 of the IPC, providing for criminal defamation proceedings
2015: rejected 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon’s plea for commutation of death penalty
COURT MEMO Soft-spoken and genial, known for quoting Shakespeare, he is a favourite of junior lawyers and litigants. He is also the first apex judge with Z-category cover
JUSTICE JASTI CHELAMESWAR
SECOND JUDGE of the apex court, though senior to the CJI by 3 months TENURE till June 2018 FAMILY belongs to the wealthy and influential Kamma community of Andhra, mainstay of the TDP. Father Jasti Lakshminarayana was a lawyer CLASS ACT a science student of Loyola College, Chennai, before studying law BAR & BENCH joined practice in 1976, headed high courts in Andhra, Assam and Kerala between 1999 and 2010; joined SC in 2011
KEY CASES
2012: part of the bench which ruled that no citizen without Aadhaar can be deprived of basic services and government subsidies 2015: was the lone dissenting judge on the verdict scrapping the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law
COURT MEMO a lively court, as he is the only one to use a microphone. Much admired for his punditry (and his library), he is the “transparency crusader” of the apex court, has boycotted collegium meetings for long
JUSTICE KURIAN JOSEPH
TENURE till November 2018 FAMILY hails from a landed family in Kerala, members of the Syro-Malabar Roman Catholic church CLASS ACT Studied at the Kerala Law Academy, Law College, Thiruvananthapuram
BAR & BENCH Began practice in 1979 in the High Court of Kerala and was elevated as judge in 2000. Appointed as Chief Justice of High Court of Himachal Pradesh in 2010 and from there to the Supreme Court in 2013
KEY CASES 2013: Part of the bench hearing the coal allocation scam case
2017: was on the bench that declared the practice of triple talaq unconstitutional
COURT MEMO One of the most unassuming judges, who often plays peacemaker for warring families in his court. A deeply spiritual man, he is a regular at church functions and even preaches on Christian TV channels. At his son’s wedding in 2013, he had invited 2,000-plus homeless people of Kochi
“WE ARE ALL UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND WE HAVE TO SURRENDER TO CONSTITUTIONAL SUPREMACY”
“SOMETIMES ADMINISTRATION OF THE SC IS NOT IN ORDER AND MANY LESS THAN DESIRABLE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS”
“THERE WILL BE NO CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, ONLY PROBLEMS IN PROCEDURES AND THAT WILL BE CORRECTED…NO THREAT TO THE CONSTITUTION AS LONG AS THE JUDICIARY IS INDEPENDENT”