Arun Kumar Mishra
Arun Kumar Mishra (born 3 September 1955) is a Former Judge of Supreme Court of India. He is former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and Rajasthan High Court. He has also served as Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court. He is also former Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Hon'ble Retd. Justice Arun Kumar Mishra | |
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| Judge of Supreme Court of India | |
| In office 7 July 2014 – 2 September 2020 | |
| Nominated by | Rajendra Mal Lodha |
| Appointed by | Pranab Mukherjee |
| Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court | |
| In office 14 December 2012 – 6 July 2014 | |
| Nominated by | Altamas Kabir |
| Appointed by | Pranab Mukherjee |
| Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court | |
| In office 26 November 2010 – 13 December 2012 | |
| Nominated by | S. H. Kapadia |
| Appointed by | Pratibha Patil |
| Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court | |
| In office 25 October 1999 – 12 September 2010 | |
| Nominated by | Adarsh Sein Anand |
| Appointed by | Kocheril Raman Narayanan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 September 1955 |
| Nationality | Indian |
Early life and education
Mishra was born on 3 September 1955. His father Late Hargovind Mishra was also a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. He completed his graduation in science and obtained a master's degree. He then obtained a degree in law. He practised from 1978 to October 1999 in Constitutional, Civil, Industrial, Criminal and Service Matters in the Bench of High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior. He worked as part-time Lecturer in Law during 1986 to 1993 and was a Member of Faculty of Law of Jiwaji University, Gwalior from 1991 to 1996.
Memberships
In 1989 and 1995, he was elected Member of State Bar Council of M.P. and Vice-Chairman of State Bar Council of M.P. from 1992 to 1995. He was a member of Academic Council of Government M.L.B. Arts and Commerce Autonomous College, Gwalior from 1996 to 1998. He was Chairman of Advocates Welfare Committee of Bar Council of India for M.P. from 1996 to 1999. He was elected Vice-Chairman of Bar Council of India in 1997-1998 and Chairman of the Bar Council from 15.05.1998 to 24.10.1999. He remained Co-Chairman of All India Meet of Development of Law Course Curriculum consisting B.C.I., U.G.C., Law Secretaries, Educationalist and Chairman of various State Bar Councils held at Bangalore in 1997. He was chairman of General Council of National Law School of India University at Bangalore from 15.05.1998 to 24.10.1999. He remained Member of the various committees of Bar Council of India viz. Legal Education Committee, Rules Making Committee, Welfare Committee, Disciplinary Committee and Trustee of Employees' Provident Fund Committee.
Contributions
He drafted and proposed Foreign Law Degree Recognition Rules of 1997 framed under Advocates' Act, 1961, Bar Council of India Employees' Service Rules, 1996, M.P. Advocates Welfare Scheme, 1995 providing benefit up to 5 lacs, Rules pertaining to Foreign Lawyers Conditions of Practice Rules on India. He proposed the decision to close evening Law Colleges from 2000 July by B.C.I. for professional purposes i.e. for entry to Bar and drafted All India Lawyers' Welfare Scheme, 1998 and also proposed Amendment to other Welfare Schemes of Advocates.
Elevation to High Court
Justice Arun Mishra was appointed as Additional Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh on 25 October 1999 and Permanent Judge on 24 October 2001. Administrative Judge of M.P. High Court. Remained Chairman, State Legal Service Authority of M.P. He was transferred to Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur and took oath on 12.09.2010. He became Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court on 01.11.2010. He took oath of the office of the Chief Justice of Rajasthan on 26.11.2010.
Achievements
Mishra has taken several steps to dovetail technology in functions of Rajasthan High Court. His initiatives include publication of first ever Newsletter of Rajasthan High Court and inauguration of a Museum. [1]
Calcutta High Court
Transferred as the Chief Justice of the High Court at Calcutta and took oath on 14.12.2012.
Controversies
2020 Justice Arun Mishra ordered demolishing five high rise residential buildings
On January 12 2020, the then Justice Arun Mishra ordered demolition of Five high rise residential buildings at Maradu, Kerala. The land on which these buildings were constructed are considered legal under current coastal norms but Justice Arun Mishra decided to ignore the current law and out of vengeance applied an old law to demolish these buildings. It is also rumored that he is a staunch supporter of BJP and therefore, BJP who has no stronghold in Kerala were simply taking Kerala to task.
Although, there are politically connected hotels and buildings that have violated coastal norms, Govt. decided to regularize those but decided to demolish residential buildings. This has further irked the population of Kerala.
2018 Supreme Court crisis
On 12 January 2018, Ranjan Gogoi, Jasti Chelameswar, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph - became the first to hold a press conference.[2][3] They alleged problems plaguing the court, in terms of failure in the justice delivery system and allocation of cases and told journalists that the press conference was prompted by the issue of allocating to Justice Arun Mishra, the case of the death of special Central Bureau of Investigation, Judge B.H.Loya. Loya, was a special CBI judge who had died in December 2014.[4] Justice Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case of 2004, in which police officers and BJP chief Amit Shah are named. Later, Mishra recused himself from the case.
2017 Malankara Church dispute
Traditionally parish churches are managed by the Parish faithfuls. The parish churches are established by its members contribution. Property possession is determined based on the registered documents whereas Justice Mishra invalidated all such documents and validated an unregistered document notoriously known as 1934 . This verdict adversely affect the Jacobite community. There was a big factual error in his verdict. He stated that less than 1% of churches (20 churches) have problem out of 2000 churches in malankara. It was proven to be wrong. Following his verdict the Methran faction claimed over 700 church built by the forefathers of Jacobite faction. Based on the verdict recently they captured a church having over 2000 members from Jacobite faction where as only 2 members are from orthodox faction. Recently methran faction converted a captured church in to a wedding stage.
Praising the Prime Minister
While delivering a vote of thanks at the inaugural session of the International Judicial Conference 2020 ‘Judiciary and the Changing World’, Arun Mishra described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an "internationally acclaimed visionary" and "a versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally".[5][6][7][8] This drew criticism from several quarters. Retired judges A P Shah, RS Sodhi and P B Sawant said the comments by Justice Arun Mishra were inappropriate.[9]
References
- "'An Eyewitness Account: When SC Judge Arun Mishra Came Across A Wheelchair-bound Senior Citizen' | Live Law". Live Law. 28 October 2017.
- PTI. "Supreme Court crisis: All not okay, democracy at stake, say four senior-most judges". @businessline. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- "Democracy At Stake, Things Not In Order: 4 Supreme Court Judges - 10 Points". NDTV.com. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- "Loya Case the Tipping Point, Four SC Judges Say Democracy Is in Danger". The Wire.
- Rajagopal, Krishnadas (22 February 2020). "Modi a versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally: Justice Arun Mishra". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- "PM Modi a versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally: Supreme Court Judge". India Today. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- "Modi is a versatile genius who thinks globally, acts locally: SC Judge Mishra". The Indian Express. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- "'Versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally': Supreme Court judge all praise for PM Modi". www.msn.com. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- Sachdev, Vakasha (22 February 2020). "'Most Inappropriate': Judges Slam Justice Mishra's PM Modi Praise". TheQuint. Retrieved 7 September 2020.