VN Khare

VN Khare

Former Chief Justice of India

Assumed Office19th Dec, 2002

Retired On1st May, 2004

Previously

Chief Justice of the Calcutta High CourtFebruary 2nd 1996 - March 20th 1997

Permanent Judge of the Allahabad High CourtJune 25th 1983 - February 1st 1996

EnrollmentNovember 28th 1961

Age: 85

Tracked Cases: 0

Education

LLBAllahabad University

Profile

Of the 223 judgments Chief Justice Khare has written, his authorship has largely been regarding property (16.6%), civil (13.9%) and service (13%) related matters.

Notable Judgments

As an advocate, Justice Khare represented Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the Allahabad High court in the famous case State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain. The case dealt with alleged electoral malpractice in the Prime Ministers’s constituency as one of her aides assisting her in the election was also a government servant. Justice Khare petitioned for the Prime Minister to be examined by a commission as opposed to testifying in court which was declined by the presiding Justice Sinha and strongly opposed by the U.P. Advocate general. Justice Sinha proceeded to find Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty in the Allahabad High Court and barred her from holding elected office for six years. The fallout of this case contributed to the declaration of Emergency on June 25th 1975.

On January 23rd 2004, while presiding as Chief Justice he passed a judgment in the case of Union of India v. Navin Jindal, upholding the fundamental rights of citizens to fly the national tri-colour flag. Restrictions had been placed before this judgment, only allowing the display of the flag on certain dates and only allowing Government buildings to display the flag regularly. The court held such restrictions abrogated the fundamental right of freedom of expression and the then ‘Flag Code of India’ was just a series of executive instructions and not law.

Most Notably, Justice Khare decided to re-open the Best Bakery Case that was a result of the 2002 riots in Gujarat. The appeal was filed by the NHRC. On account of collusion between the prosecution and the accused, in this case, multiple instances of witness intimidation were recorded. A re-trial was ordered after Justice Khare heard the appeal to rectify this miscarriage of justice.

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