Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah

Jayantilal Shah
Jayantilal Shah
	Sarv Mittra Sikri
Chief Justice of Bombay High Court
Preceded by	Prakash Chandra Tatia ; D. N. Patel (acting)
Personal details
Born	22 January 1906; Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah (22 January 1906 – 4 January 1991) was the

twelfth Chief Justice of India from 17 December 1970 until his retirement on 21 January 1971. He was born in Ahmedabad.^[1]

Early life and legal career

Shah attended schooling at R.C. School in Ahmedabad and subsequently studied at

Gandhi assassination case.^[3] In 1949, he moved to the Bombay High Court where he was judge for 10 years.^[1] In October 1959, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of India

, and became Chief Justice of India in December 1970.

Indian Emergency (1975–77) and Shah Commission

On 28 May 1977, the home ministry appointed Justice J. C. Shah, who was then a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India to head the

Emergency in India.^[4] The Shah commission was required to look "into excesses, malpractices and misdeeds committed during the Emergency by the political authorities, public servants, their friends, and in particular allegations of gross misuse of power of arrest or detention, use of force in the implementation of the family planning programme and indiscriminate and high-handed demolition of houses, shops, buildings etc. in the name of slum clearance."^[4]

The commission concluded that during the Emergency the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and the Defence of India Rules were not followed but were abused in order to damage political opponents.[5] Concerning the circumstances in which the emergency was proclaimed, the commission found that there was no economic crisis and no crisis of law and order.^[6] The commission decided that the decision to impose Emergency was made by prime minister Indira Gandhi alone, without consulting her cabinet colleagues, and was not justified.^[5] The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Bansi Lal, Kamal Nath and officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.^[7] The commission concluded that during the Emergency the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and the Defence of India Rules were not followed but were abused in order to damage political opponents.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b Sethi, Sunil. "High priest of justice". India Today. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ "Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah". Supreme Court of India. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Former CJ J.C. Shah dead". The Indian Express. Press Trust of India. 5 January 1991. p. 1. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
^ ^a ^b Sen, Vikramajil; Singh, Ajay. "The law: What after Shah Commission?". India Today. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Sen 2002, p. 141.
^ Sen 2002, p. 140-141.
^ Kumar & Agrawal 1993, p. 193ff.