India’s Gateway to A Collegium System
Jagdish Sharan Verma was an Indian jurist born in Satna, Madhya Pradesh. He was one of 7 brothers and 3 sisters. He completed his early education at Venkat High School, Satna, followed by Government Jubilee Inter College, Lucknow. He gained both B.Sc and LL.B from the University of Allahabad. He served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. Thereafter he was the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2003, and Chairman of the Justice Verma Committee Report on Amendments to Criminal Law after the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. He remains one of India’s most highly regarded Chief Justices and eminent jurists.
He is known for his judicial innovation through landmark judgements, which made him “the face of judicial activism” in India. His decisions are credited with the forging of powerful new judicial tools such as Continuing Mandamus, and the expanded protection of fundamental rights as in the Vishaka Judgment. Alongside judicial activism and fundamental rights protection, he is strongly associated with women’s empowerment, probity in public life, judicial accountability, as well as enhancing social justice.
He was also the First Chair of the NBSA and helped formulate guidelines through which the electronic media, agreed to observe standards of due diligence to ensure accuracy, giving criticized individuals a fair chance to respond, also, protecting the rights of victims to privacy and of the accused to a fair trial. Justice Verma began his legal career in 1955 and was appointed as a Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court in June 1972. In the following year he delivered a judgment arguing that a juvenile convicted of murder ought to be tried under separate procedures to an adult. This went on to form the basis for the 1986 Juvenile Justice Act.
After the declaration of State of Emergency in India, he was one of the first judges to reject the Government’s proclamation that Emergency took precedence over rights to life and liberty. Before the Supreme Court stopped High Courts from entertaining Habeas Corpus petitions, Verma “stood out” as one of the few high court judges that released detainees arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act.
He became Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court in June 1985 and also served as Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court from September 1986 until his overdue elevation to the Supreme Court in June 1989. He acted as the Governor of Rajasthan twice between 1986 and 1989.
In June, 1989, he was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India and became Chief Justice of India in January, 1998. During his time at the Supreme Court, Justice Verma gave numerous landmark judgments in the cases Kumari ShrilekaVidyarthietc Vs. State of U.P. & Ors; K Veeraswami vs Union of India; Smt. Nilabati Behera vs. State of Orissa & Ors; The Second Judges Case; S.R Bommai v Union of India; and many more. He also presided over the fodder scam case, and the prosecution of Godman Chandraswami.
Justice Verma is remembered as the judiciary’s conscience keeper for his “Restatement of Values of Judicial Life.” This was as a code of ethics for the judiciary in India that he instigated whilst Chief Justice. This was ratified and adopted by the Indian Judiciary in the Chief Justices’ Conference 1999. All the High Courts in the country also adopted the same in their full court meetings. The goal was to create a resolution which would bind the judiciary for the purposes of independence, integrity, accountability, honesty and transparency. The “Restatement of Values” is meant to be an illustrative (not exhaustive) declaration of what is expected of a Judge. The Resolution was preceded by a draft statement circulated to all the High Courts of the country and suitably redrafted in the light of the suggestions which were received.
Around the same time (In 1997), he also got the judiciary to adopt resolutions requiring all high court and Supreme Court judges to declare their assets and submit to an “In-house procedure” to inquire into any allegations of misbehavior against them. More controversially, Verma wrote the 1993 judgment introducing the “Collegium” system for appointing judges, earning India the odium of being the only country where judges appoint judges.
Justice Verma served as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from 4 November 1999 to 17 January 2003. He is known for having ‘set the stage’ for justice in the 2002 Gujarat Violence. On 1 April 2002 Justice Verma recommended a CBI probe into the following five cases after taking the view that investigations were being hampered by extraneous considerations and people: Godhra, Gulbarg Society, NarodaPatiya, Best Bakery, and Sardarpura in Mehsana.
The NHRC led by Justice Verma brought a petition to the Supreme Court seeking retrial of the Best Bakery case and also four additional cases outside Gujarat after a local court had acquitted the accused.Justice Verma severely indicted the Government of Gujarat at the time of the riots.
As Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Verma had written a five-page letter to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in which he indicted the Gujarat state government for its role in the 2002 violence in the state and questioned the Nanavati-Mehta Commission’s credibility. In a 2008 interview, Verma had also criticized Vajpayee’s response to the letter as nothing but, a formal acknowledgement.
Justice Verma was a strong believer in the Right to Information. Observing the 52nd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Justice Verma said: “In a democracy, participatory role in governments can be realised only if the right to information exists so that the public can make an informed choice.”
Justice Verma had also publicly stated that the judiciary should be brought within the ambit of the Right to Information Act 2005: “To ensure transparency and accountability in public eye, I strongly feel that judiciary should be brought into the ambit of Right to Information Act. When hearing of all the cases is done publicly, decisions are pronounced publicly, the administrative actions of the judiciary, especially judicial appointments should be made open to public scrutiny,” Justice Verma told a BBC Hindi Programme.
Justice Verma was one of the leading figures involved in the movement for the Right to Information Act 2005 and in its implementation.
In the aftermath of the gang rape in Delhi, Justice Verma was appointed Chairperson of a three-member commission tasked with reforming and invigorating anti-rape law. His committee members were Ex-Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and Justice (Retd.) Leila Seth. The Committee was assisted by a team of young lawyers, law students and academics. The Committee’s counsel, Abhishek Tewari, Advocate was overall in charge of the preparation of the report. He was assisted by Talha Abdul Rahman, Prof. Mrinal Satish, Shwetasree Majumdar, Saumya Saxena, Preetika Mathur, Siddharth Peter de Souza, Anubha Kumar, Apoorv Kurup, Devansh Mohta, Jigar Patel, Nikhil Mehra, Nishit Agrawal, Shyam Nandan, Nithyaesh Natraj and Salman Hashmi.
The Committee adopted a multidisciplinary approach interpreting its mandate expansively. The Report deals with sexual crimes at all levels and with the measures needed for prevention as well as punishment of all offences with sexual overtones that are on affront to human dignity. This is on the basis that the issue of sexual assault against women is one that goes to the core of social norms and values. The Report also deals with the construct of gender justice in India and the various obstructions to this. The Committee’s approach is founded on achieving the guarantee of equality for all in the Constitution of India.
The comprehensive 630 page report, which was completed in 29 days, was lauded both nationally and internationally. This eventually led to the passing of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which was criticized as not adequately applying the Committee’s work and recommendations.
Justice Verma is remembered for his legal innovation and firm commitment to women’s empowerment, accountability of judiciary and government, probity in public life, social justice and secularism. He told fresh law graduates of WBNUJS while delivering the convocation address, “Each one of you is that ‘little drop’ who can unite to make the ‘rain’ needed for the ‘monsoon of purity in national character’ to revive the parched field.” Justice Verma is considered to be one of the best Chief Justices of India.
His legacy is carried on by the Justice Verma Foundation, whose mission is ‘To make the law a friend to those most in need of one.’ It focuses on providing quality pro bono representation to those most in need of it in High Courts and the Supreme Court. It does this by acting as a facilitator to match lawyers with clients in need.
Justice Verma died from multiple organ failure on 22 April 2013 at Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife and two daughters
www.grandmasters.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.rcls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.itlegalsummit.com | 8 Years & Counting
www.bfls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.maels.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.plcs.co.in | 8 Years & Counting
Copyright © 2020 Lex Witness - India's 1st Magazine on Legal & Corporate Affairs Rights of Admission Reserved
