The Centre on August 8, 2017 cleared the file for appointment of Justice Dipak Misra as the 45th Chief Justice of India with effect from August 28, 2017.
Justice Misra, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court after the current CJI, Justice J.S. Khehar, who is retiring on August 27, 2017, will have a tenure of about 14 months till October 2, 2018.
Justice Misra was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011. He enrolled as an advocate on February 14, 1977 and appointed an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996. After a stint in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, he became a Permanent Judge in December 1997 before assuming charge as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court in 2009 and, later on, served as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
As the current Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), Justice Misra embarked on a programme to turn State Legal Services Authorities' offices into hubs providing facilities that enable litigants under legal aid to access court documents, case status and connect to their advocates online and through dedicated phone numbers. The facility called 'Legal Assistance Establishments' or Nyaya Sanyog will cater to poor litigants and the families of under trials languishing in jails to get quick access to justice.
Conveying the thought behind the welfare initiative, Justice Misra once said, “No undertrial or prisoner shall remain without legal aid. Every case has a human face”.
Justice Misra wrote history when he led the three-judge Bench which heard Yakub Memon, the sole condemned man in the Bombay blasts case, who came knocking on the Supreme Court’s door for reprieve in the wee hours of the day he was hanged to death.
Justice Misra is presently hearing a slew of important cases with far-reaching consequences. These include the BCCI case for transparency in Indian cricket administration and the SEBI-Sahara spat, in which the court is playing the taskmaster to get Sahara repay the crores its owes its investors. Justice Misra is also heading the Bench hearing the right of women of a certain age to equally access the famed Sabarimala temple in Kerala. A Special Bench led by Justice Misra is scheduled to hear the long-pending and complicated Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute on August 11, 2017.
In May 2017, Justice Misra authored the landmark judgement confirming the death penalty of four convicts in the brutal Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case which shook the nation and spurred the genesis of a stringent anti-rape law. In his verdict, Justice Misra termed the convicts as those who “found an object for enjoyment in her... for their gross, sadistic and beastly pleasures... for the devilish manner in which they played with her dignity and identity is humanly inconceivable”.
He had upheld constitutionality of criminal defamation. He was also part of the Bench of the Supreme Court's seven seniormost judges who convicted then Calcutta High Court judge Justice C.S. Karnan, of contempt of court and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment.
In 2015, a Bench led by Justice Misra set aside the ban on dance bars under the Maharashtra Police Act while observing that there are other alternative to a ban on dance performances to ensure safety of women.
Justice Misra also hit headline when the Bench he was leading ordered that patrons should stand up in respect and "committed patriotism and nationalism" when the National Anthem and National Flag are featured before shows in cinema theatres across the country.