Shripathi Ravindra Bhat (born 21 October 1958) is a former 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 ...

. He has also served as chief justice of the

Rajasthan High Court The High Court of Rajasthan is located in Jodhpur and is the highest court in the Indian state, state of Rajasthan. It was established on 29 August 1949 under the ''Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949''. Currently the Judiciary of India#Judge s ...

and judge of the

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...

Career

He was born on 21 October 1958 at

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

. He was educated in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

. He did his schooling from the Central School,

Faridabad Faridabad () is the most populous List of cities in Haryana by population, city near NCT of Delhi in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of National Capital Region (India), Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite citie ...

. He did

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

with honors in English literature from

Hindu College, Delhi Hindu College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Founded in 1899, it is one of the oldest colleges in India, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the Science and technology studies, sciences, humanities and c ...

in 1979. He obtained his

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from Campus Law Centre,

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

in 1982. In the same year, he was enrolled with Delhi Bar Council. He practiced before

and

. He was elevated as an additional judge of

on 16 July 2004 and made permanent judge on 20 February 2006. He was elevated as chief justice of

on 5 May 2019. He was elevated as a judge of

on 23 September 2019. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Bhat authored 142 judgments.

Notable judgements

In his tenure as a judge of the Delhi High Court, Bhat delivered some landmark judgements, particularly in the field of IPR, drug regulation and right to information. In Roche v Cipla, a request for an interim injunction by Roche was denied by Justice Bhat on the ground of public interest. The matter pertained to a claim of patent infringement by Roche against generic drug manufacturer Cipla. Going against the entrenched norm of routinely awarding interim injunctions in such matters, Justice Bhat refused injunction on the ground that such interference may lead to the public’s interest getting affected due to the huge price differential between Roche’s and Cipla’s drugs. Another significant judgment from his stable is CPIO v Subhash Chandra Agarwal in which he held that the office of the Chief Justice of India is amenable to the provisions of the Right to Information Act. This matter was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ultimately agreed with Bhat’s High Court judgment, subject to certain conditions. Bhat was also part of the bench which upheld the constitutionality of the 2018 amendment to SC-ST(Prevention of Atrocities)Act, 1989. On February 10, 2020, the Court formally upheld the constitutionality of the 2018 Amendment. Justice Arun Mishra wrote the majority on behalf of himself and Justice Vineet Saran. Justice S.R. Bhat wrote a concurring opinion.

References

1958 births Living people Chief justices of the Rajasthan High Court Delhi University alumni Faculty of Law, University of Delhi alumni Judges of the Delhi High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India People from Mysore 21st-century Indian judges {{India-law-bio-stub