Ranganath Mishra
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Ranganath Misra (25 November 1926 – 13 September 2012) was the 21st
Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (CJI) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India and the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the President of India to appoint, as recommended by the outg ...
, serving from 25 September 1990 to 24 November 1991. He was also the first chairman of the
National Human Rights Commission of India The National Human Rights Commission of India (abbreviated as NHRC) is a statutory body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Huma ...
. He also served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from the Congress Party between 1998 and 2004. He is the second Supreme court judge to become a
Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
member after Baharul Islam who was also elected as
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
member.


Background and family

Ranganath Misra was born on 25 November 1926 in
Banapur Banapur is a town and a Notified Area Council in Khordha district in the state of Odisha, India. The town is named after the King Banasura of Lord Shri Krishna era (as the epic tells). Banasura, a demon-king who is said to have ruled over thi ...
,
Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...
into an Utkal Brahmin family. His father, Godavaris Mishra (sometimes spelt Godabarish Misra), was an Odia litterateur and congress politician who became education minister of Orissa state in 1941 while India was still under British rule. In this capacity, Godavaris was instrumental in the founding of
Utkal University Utkal University (UU) is a public university in Bhubaneswar, Khordha, Odisha, and is the oldest university in the state, and the 17th-oldest university in India. The university was established in 1943 and was operating from Ravenshaw College ...
. Ranganath was the youngest of three sons. His eldest brother,
Lokanath Misra Lokanath Misra (22 November 1921 – 27 May 2009) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was the Governor of Assam from 1991 to 1997 and held additional charge as Governor of Nagaland from 1992 to 1993. He died on 27 ...
, was a prominent politician belonging to
Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly so ...
(led by
Rajaji Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...
) and later the
Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...
. He served for several terms as a member of the
Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
(upper house of Indian parliament) and also as governor of
Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
and
Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...
. Loknath Misra's son, Pinaki Misra, is a
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
MP belonging to the
Biju Janata Dal The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is an Indian regional political party with significant influence in the state of Odisha. The party was established to uphold the legacy of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik and to address the unique socio-economic ...
. Ranganath's second brother, Raghunath Misra, was a politician belonging to the Congress Party who was elected to the Orissa Legislative Assembly from the Banpur constituency. Raghunath's son,
Dipak Misra Dipak Misra (born 3 October 1953) is an Indian jurist who served as the 45th Chief Justice of India from 28 August 2017 till 2 October 2018. He is also former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and Delhi High Court. He is the nephew of Justi ...
was the 45th
Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (CJI) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India and the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the President of India to appoint, as recommended by the outg ...
; he was in office from 28 August 2017 to 2 October 2018. Ranganath studied at Banpur High School and P.M. Academy and later at
Ravenshaw College Ravenshaw University, formerly known as Ravenshaw College, is a co-educational state university situated in Cuttack, Odisha on the eastern coast of India. Founded as Ravenshaw College in 1868, the institution became a university in 2006. The u ...
and
Allahabad University The University of Allahabad is a Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). It is the 4th oldest mode ...
. At a young age, he was married to Sumitra Misra, a woman of his own community and similar background, in a match arranged by their families in the usual Indian way. In 1950, they had a son, Devananda Misra, who became a lawyer and a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and the Orissa High Court. In 2009, Misra and his wife suffered a tremendous personal loss with the death of their son, Devananda Misra, who died aged 59.


Career

On 18 September 1950, Misra got enrolled as advocate of
Orissa High Court The Orissa High Court is the High Courts of India, High Court for the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Odisha. The then Bengal Presidency was a vast province including present day Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West ...
,
Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...
, where he practiced law until 1969, when he was appointed a Permanent Judge of the Orissa High Court. He served as the acting Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court from 6 November 1980 to 16 January 1981, and on the latter date, he took office as permanent Chief Justice of the Orissa High court. He was appointed Judge of the
Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...
in 1983. He became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India on 25 September 1990 and retired on 24 November 1991. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Misra authored 314 judgments and sat on 821 benches.


1984 anti-Sikh riot report

Ranganath Misra was the sole member of the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission of Inquiry, a commission that headed the investigation of
1984 anti-Sikh riots The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs w ...
and gave its report in 1986. Jagjit Singh Aurora, the former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the
Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...
and a member of the
Citizen's Justice Committee Citizen's Justice Committee (commonly known as CJC) is an Indian umbrella organization of various human rights organizations and is known for ''pro bono'' representing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims in their legal battle to gain justice. For ...
, commented that "The terms of reference of the commission were biased against the victims, the victims were forced to come to the investigation with the burden of proof on them". He indicted 19 workers of the Congress Party who were charged by the
People's Union for Civil Liberties People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is a human rights body formed in India in 1976 by Jayaprakash Narayan, as the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR). Background Indian emergency Jayaprakash Narayan was ...
of having abetted the riots, but gave clean chit to the Congress Party.


National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities

The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities was constituted by the Government of India on 29 October 2004 to examine various issues related to linguistic and religious minorities in India. The commission was chaired by Justice Misra, who also lent it its eponymous name, Ranganath Misra Commission. The commission submitted its report on 21 May 2007, wherein it recommended Scheduled Caste reservation for Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam.


Retirement and death

He served as the Chief Scout of the All India Boy Scouts Association since 1992. He became the first Chairman of the
National Human Rights Commission of India The National Human Rights Commission of India (abbreviated as NHRC) is a statutory body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Huma ...
in 1993. He was member of Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2004 from the Congress Party headed by Sonia Gandhi. After prolonged illness, Ranganath Misra died on 13 September 2012 at a private hospital in
Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar () is the capital and the largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. It is located in the Khordha district. The suburban region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Chakra ...
. He was survived by his wife Sumitra Misra and grandson Anand Misra.


References


External links


Supreme Court of India: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Raganath Misra.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Misra, Ranganath 1926 births 2012 deaths Scouting and Guiding in India Chief justices of India People from Khordha district Rajya Sabha members from Odisha 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian judges Indian National Congress politicians from Odisha Recipients of the Utkal Ratna Samman Ravenshaw University alumni