The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judicial authority and the highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also has the power of judicial review. The Supreme Court,which consists of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of fellow 33 judges,has extensive powers in the form of original,appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
Teesta Setalvad is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP),an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan is an Indian judge who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and later the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He was the first judge from Kerala to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His tenure lasting more than three years has been one of the longest in the Supreme Court of India. While being Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court,he was appointed as the acting governor of Gujarat from 16 January 1999 to 18 March 1999. In 2010,he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Cochin University of Science and Technology.
Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud is an Indian jurist,who is the 50th and Current Chief Justice of India serving since November 2022. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India in May 2016. He has also previously served as the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court from 2013 to 2016 and as a judge of the Bombay High Court from 2000 to 2013. He is also a former executive chairperson (ex officio) of the National Legal Services Authority.
Prashant Bhushan is an Indian public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Hazare's campaign for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. After a split in IAC,he helped Team Anna form the Aam Aadmi Party. In 2015,he made several allegations against the party's leadership,its functioning and its deviation from the core ideology,values and commitments. He is one of the founders of Swaraj Abhiyan and Sambhaavnaa,an Institute of Public Policy and Politics.
Ehsan Jafri was an Indian politician and former member of the 6th Lok Sabha for the Congress Party,who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre.
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002,during the 2002 Gujarat riots,when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society,a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura,Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. Most of the houses were burnt,and at least 35 victims,including a former Congress Member of Parliament,Ehsan Jafri,were burnt alive,while 31 others went missing after the incident,later presumed dead,bringing the total deaths to 69.
Altamas Kabir was an Indian lawyer and judge who served as the 39th Chief Justice of India.
Sanjiv Bhatt is a former Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat-cadre. He is known for his role in filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against the then Chief Minister of the Government of Gujarat,Narendra Modi,concerning Modi's alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. He claimed to have attended a meeting,during which Modi allegedly asked top police officials to let Hindus vent their anger against the Muslims. However,the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India concluded that Bhatt did not attend any such meeting,and dismissed his allegations.
Ranjan Gogoi is an Indian former advocate and judge who served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019,having previously served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from 2012 to 2018. He is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha,having been nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 16 March 2020. Gogoi served as a judge in the Gauhati High Court from 2001 to 2010,and then was transferred as a judge to the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2010 to 2011 where he later was the Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012. He is also a member of the Committee on External Affairs in the Rajya Sabha.
Palanisamy Sathasivam is an Indian judge who served as the 40th Chief Justice of India,holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career,Sathasivam was appointed the 21st Governor of Kerala from 5 September 2014 to 4 September 2019. Sathasivam is the second judge from Tamil Nadu to become the CJI,after M. Patanjali Sastri. He is also the first former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to be appointed the Governor of a state. He is the first Governor of Kerala to be appointed by the Narendra Modi Government.
Sharad Arvind Bobde is an Indian judge who served as the 47th Chief Justice of India from 18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021.
Uday Umesh Lalit is an Indian lawyer and former Supreme Court Judge,who served as the 49th Chief Justice of India. Previously,he has served as a judge of Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation as a judge,he practised as a senior counsel at the Supreme Court. Justice Lalit is one of the six senior counsels who have been directly elevated to the Supreme Court. He is currently ‘Distinguished Visiting Professor’at Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies,Indian Institute of Technology,Bombay. and Distinguished Visiting Professor at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
Brijgopal Harkishan Loya (1966–2014) was an Indian judge who served in a special court which deals with matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case,and died on 1 December 2014 in Nagpur. A bench of the Supreme Court of India,headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra,on April 19,2018,dismissed the public interest petition (PIL),and stated the death to be natural and such petitions to be an attack on the Judiciary.
Umar Khalid is an Indian student activist,a former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University,former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition row and is an accused under the UAPA law. Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate,a campaign founded along with Nadeem Khan in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.
Mukeshkumar Rasikbhai Shah is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India,former chief justice of the Patna High Court and a former judge of Gujarat High Court.
In India,the offence of contempt of court is committed when a person either disobeys a court order,or when a person says or does anything that scandalizes,prejudices,or interferes with judicial proceedings and the administration of justice. Contempt of court can be punished with imprisonment or a fine,or both.
Gokarakonda Naga "G. N." Saibaba is an Indian scholar,writer,human rights activist,and former assistant professor.
In India,the Pegasus Project investigations alleged that the Pegasus spyware was used on ministers,opposition leaders,political strategist and tacticians,journalists,activists,minority leaders,Supreme court judges,religious leaders,administrators like Election Commissioners and heads of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Some of these phones were later digitally &forensically analysed by Amnesty International’s Security Lab on 10 Indian phones and the analysis showed signs of either an attempted or successful Pegasus hack. However,the Supreme Court of India stated that the technical committee had found 'malware' in 5 of the 29 phones,but not able to say conclusively that the malware found was Pegasus. The Chief Justice also mentioned that the government refused to cooperate in the investigation.
ISRO espionage case involved discredited allegations of espionage made by Indian investigation agencies in the 1990s against some scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Indian intelligence agencies and the Kerala police arrested some senior aerospace engineers on charges of attempting to sell confidential documents containing designs of indigenous rocket engine developed by ISRO.
