J. S. Verma

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 criticised as it did not adequately consider the Committee's work and recommendations.

Verma died from multiple organ failure on 22 April 2013 at Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon at the age of 80. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

In the aftermath of the 2012 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 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.

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.

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. The NHRC report was quoted by the US when denying Narendra Modi a visa. The NHRC report on 31 May 2002 stated:

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 criticized Vajpayee's response to the letter:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

As stated by Verma, the NHRC report on the 2002 Gujarat violence noted two issues which smacked of discrimination. Whereas a reward of Rs 2 lakhs was announced for the next of kin of victims of the attack on Sabarmati Express, a similar reward for riot victims was Rs 1 lakh. Second, POTA was being applied to the Sabarmati Express incident, but not to the riots. According to Verma:

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 while 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.

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, Naroda Patiya, Best Bakery, and Sardarpura in Mehsana.

The Vishakha and others v State of Rajasthan (13 September 1997) is considered one of the world's landmark judgments in gender justice. It was brought as a class action by certain NGO's and social activists following the brutal gang rape of a social worker in Rajasthan to enforce the fundamental rights of working women under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court laid down guidelines to deal with the menace of sexual harassment at the workplace through an approach based on equal access, prevention, and empowerment. This approach was the foundation for national and international best practice in dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace.

The Hindutva Judgment (R.Y. Prabhoo vs P.K. Kunte 11 December 1995) is one of Justice Verma's most controversial judgments, which he believed was widely misunderstood. It is considered to have been particularly misinterpreted by the BJP.

At a public meeting held in Delhi on 27 May 1990, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind had held that the separation of Kashmir from India was inevitable. On 1 August 1991, the organization had also demanded that the Government of India hold a plebiscite in Kashmir to determine whether the people of that province wish to remain in India or secede. Viewing these acts as constituting clear-cut sedition, the Government of India exercised the powers conferred on it by Section 3 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, declaring it an unlawful association because had been carrying out unlawful activities. Later, a tribunal order endorsed this notification.

In June 1989, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice of India in January 1998. During his time in the Supreme Court, Justice Verma gave numerous landmark judgments.

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 elevation to the Supreme Court in June 1989. He acted as the Governor of Rajasthan twice between 1986 and 1989.

The court was guided by the need to educate people in the doctrine of trust and intergenerational equity that it is the duty of every generation to preserve natural resources for the next generation. The court relied on the principle of trust as opposed to ownership of natural resources and sought to balance the need for development with preservation of the environment. The court held that The Forest Conservation Act of 1980 was enacted with a view to check further deforestation which ultimately results in ecological imbalance and therefore, the provisions made therein for the conservation of forests and fore matters connected therewith, must apply to all forests irrespective of the nature of ownership or classification thereof.

Verma began his legal career in 1955, and enrolled as an advocate in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in August 1959. He was appointed the judge there in June 1972. In the following year, he delivered a judgement arguing that a juvenile convicted of murder ought to be tried under separate procedures from an adult. This went on to form the basis for the Juvenile Justice Act in 1986.

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."

The Bombay High Court had given a judgment against the election of Dr. R.Y Prabhoo (Shiv Sena) declaring his election void on the ground that he had been found guilty of corrupt practices under Subsections 3 and 3A of Section 123 of the Representation of People Act (India) 1951. This provides that candidates are prohibited from eliciting votes or persuading people not to vote on the grounds of his religion, race, caste, community or language or the use of or appeal to religious symbols. It also prohibits the promotion of or attempt to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on the grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language.

The Supreme Court held that "the instructions in the form of do's and don't's have to be treated as binding instructions which are required to be followed by the members of the armed forces exercising powers under the Central Act and a serious note should be taken of violation of the instructions and the persons found responsible for such violations should be suitably punished under the Army Act of 1950." The court also then pointed out that there are safeguards within the powers exercisable under the Act. Parliament included these safeguards to check the arbitrary exercise of power by the armed forces.

A petition was filed by a former high court chief justice in the Supreme Court arguing that he could not be proceeded against under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947. This was on the basis that he was not a public servant for the purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The majority of the Supreme Court held that a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Madras could be proceeded against under the Act. This was on the basis that a judge belonging to the higher judiciary was a public servant for the purposes of the Act.

Jagdish Sharan Verma (18 January 1933 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian jurist who served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. 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 in its history.