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Jasti Chelameswar

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This is a Telugu name; the family name is Jasti.

Jasti Chelameswar
Jasti Chelameswar (April 2014)
Judge of the Supreme Court of India
In office
10 October 2011[1] – 22 June 2018
Nominated byS. H. Kapadia
Appointed byPratibha Patil
Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court
In office
17 March 2010 – 9 October 2011
Nominated byK. G. Balakrishnan
Appointed byPratibha Patil
Preceded byS. R. Bannurmath
Succeeded byManjula Chellur
Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court
In office
2 May 2007 – 17 March 2010
Nominated byK. G. Balakrishnan
Appointed byA. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court
In office
23 June 1997 – 2 May 2007
Nominated byJ. S. Verma
Appointed byRamaswamy Venkataraman
Personal details
Born (1953-06-23) 23 June 1953 (age 71)
Movva mandal, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India
Alma materAndhra University,
Loyola College, Chennai

Jasti Chelameswar (born 23 June 1953) is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. He retired on 22 June 2018 as the second most senior supreme court judge.[2] He previously served as the chief justice of the Kerala High Court from 2010 to 2011 and the Gauhati High Court from 2007 to 2010.[3] He was also one of the four judges who held a controversial press conference against Chief Justice Dipak Misra.[4]

Early life

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Chelameswar was born in Peddamuttevi village of Movva mandal, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, the son of Jasti Lakshminarayana, a lawyer who practised at the district court, and his wife Annapoornamma. After completing his schooling in Machilipatnam, Chelameswar enrolled at Loyola College, Chennai and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with physics as his major subject. He then studied Law and obtained a Bachelor of Laws from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in 1976.[1]

Career

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Chelameswar served as an additional judge at the then High Court of Andhra Pradesh. Later, he became the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court in 2007. He was later transferred as the chief justice of the Kerala High Court and was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in October 2011.[5]

According to an Op-Ed in The Economic Times:

Chelameswar, once a government pleader, was appointed additional judge in the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1997. He has been chief justice of both the Gauhati and Kerala high courts where he is perceived as having done exemplary work on the green benches there. He was made a Supreme Court judge in 2011 after an unexplained delay. This denied him the chance to be chief justice of India. He has delivered several landmark judgements while in the top court.[6]

Notable judgements

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Freedom of speech

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Main article: Shreya Singhal v. Union of India

Chelameswar and Rohinton Fali Nariman formed the two judge bench of the Supreme Court of India which struck down a controversial law which gave Indian police the power to arrest anyone accused of posting emails or other electronic messages which "causes annoyance or inconvenience". The judges held Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which made such offenses punishable up to three years imprisonment, to be unconstitutional.[7][8][9][10][11] According to Chelameswar and Nariman, several terms in the law they were striking down were "open-ended, undefined and vague" which made them nebulous in nature. According to the judges: "What may be offensive to one may not be offensive to another. What may cause annoyance or inconvenience to one may not cause annoyance or inconvenience to another.”[11]

In their judgement the judges clarified that a distinction needs to be made between discussion, advocacy, and incitement. Any discussion, or advocacy of even an unpopular cause cannot be restricted, and it is only when such discussion or advocacy reaches the level of incitement whereby it causes public disorder or affects the security of the state can it be curbed.[9][10][11]

The judgement has been welcomed for defending the Indian Constitution's ideals of tolerance and the Constitutional provisions of free speech.[12][13] It has been pointed out that the controversial law struck down by Chelameswar and Nariman had gained notoriety after many people in India started getting arrested for seemingly innocuous reasons on the grounds that they had violated the now scrapped law.[10][12][13][14]

Aadhaar

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A three judge bench of the Supreme Court, composed of Chelameswar, Sharad Arvind Bobde, and Chokkalingam Nagappan, ratified an earlier order of the Supreme Court and clarified that no Indian citizen without an Aadhaar card can be deprived of basic services and government subsidies.[15] This ratification by the three judge bench however was made invalid by the subsequent judgements of the Supreme Court and notifications by the Government of India making Aadhar mandatory for basic services and government subsidies.[16][17][18]

National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) verdict

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In his dissenting opinion in the NJAC verdict (2015), Chelameswar had criticised the collegium system of appointing judges, which he said has become "a euphemism for nepotism" where "mediocrity or even less" is promoted and a "constitutional disorder" does not look distant.[6][19]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Hon'ble Mr. Justice Jasti Chelameswar". Supreme Court of India. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  2. ^ "Justice Jasti Chelameswar sits with CJI Dipak Misra, dispels speculations". barandbench.com. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  3. ^ Rautray, Samanwaya. "Meet Jasti Chelameswar, only judge who ruled in favour of government's NJAC - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Turmoil in Supreme Court as four judges speak out against Chief Justice Dipak Misra". Hindustan Times. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Hon'ble Mr. Justice Jasti Chelameswar". Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Meet Jasti Chelameswar, only judge who ruled in favour of government's NJAC". The Economic Times. 17 October 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Section 66A: India court strikes down 'Facebook' arrest law". BBC. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  8. ^ "India supreme court strikes down internet censorship law". The Guardian. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  9. ^ a b "A blow for free speech". The Hoot. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  10. ^ a b c "Supreme Court upholds free speech on internet, scraps 'unconstitutional' Section 66A of IT Act". Hindustan Times. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  11. ^ a b c "SC strikes down 'draconian' Section 66A". The Hindu. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  12. ^ a b "The judgment that silenced Section 66A". The Hindu. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Our Politicians Loved Section 66(A)". NDTV. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Stats from 2014 reveal horror of scrapped section 66A of IT Act". Hindustan Times. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  15. ^ "Don't insist on Aadhar, warns SC". The Hindu. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  16. ^ "Aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidised foodgrains from PDS". The Hindu. PTI. 9 February 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  17. ^ "COVID-19 and Aadhaar: Why the Union Government's Relief Package is an Exclusionary Endeavour". Economic and Political Weekly: 7–8. 5 June 2015.
  18. ^ Staff Writer (26 September 2018). "What Supreme Court's Aadhaar verdict means for you: 10 points". mint. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  19. ^ "The judge who dissented: 'No accountability, mediocrity or even less promoted, reform overdue'". The Indian Express. 17 October 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
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