Dipak Misra

Justice Dipak Misra (born 3 October 1953) is a judge of the Supreme Court of India. A former Chief Justice of the Patna and Delhi High Courts, he is in line to become the Chief Justice of India in 2017, succeeding Justice J. S. Khehar.^[1][2] He is the nephew of Ranganath Misra who too was CJI from Sept 1990 - November 1991.^[3]

Career

Justice Misra enrolled at the Bar on 14 February 1977 and practised at the Orissa High Court and the Service Tribunal. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996 and was later transferred the following year to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, where he was made a Permanent Judge on 19 December 1997. In December 2009, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and served until May 2010, when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. He served in the latter capacity until his elevation to the Supreme Court on 10 October 2011.^[1]

Justice Misra has a tenure of almost seven years at the Supreme Court and is in line to become Chief Justice of India in 2017. He is then expected to have a tenure of just under 14 months as Chief Justice.^[4]

Notable judgements

Justice Misra's passed judgment in the Own Motion vs State case, requiring Delhi Police to upload FIRs on their website within 24 hours of the FIRs being lodged, in order to enable the accused to file appropriate applications before the court for redressal of their grievances.^[5]

In a case on Reservation in promotion, Justice Misra and Justice Dalveer Bhandari upheld the Allahabad High Court judgement that reservation in promotions can be provided only if there is sufficient data and evidence to justify the need. The bench rejected the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to provide reservation in promotion on the ground that it failed to furnish sufficient valid data.^[6][7][8]

Justice Misra led the bench which rejected the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's appeal to stop his execution. He then received a death threat in writing, an anonymous letter which says "irrespective of the protection you may avail, we will eliminate you."^[9]

Criticism

A 268 page judgement authored by Misra, as a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India, was criticized for being verbose and obscure, containing inapt words or phrases, and malapropisms.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}Its legal underpinning was also criticized on the ground that by upholding defamation to be a criminal offense the judgement strikes a blow against freedom of speech and expression in India.^{[13][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

References