Justice Khare a great role model

VN KHARE’S  life represents the success story of a person who, starting with humble beginnings in an old city locality in Allahabad, rose to reach the highest pedestal of the Indian judiciary as the Chief Justice of India.

After having done his law from the Allahabad University, he joined the legal profession at the Allahabad High Court in 1961 under the able guidance of his father Bishambhar Nath Khare and uncle, Mr S C Khare, an  illustrious High Court lawyer of his times at Allahabad.

Over a period of time, with his commendable sense of dedication to the legal profession, coupled with his graceful humility and commitment to the core values which sustain one’s steady but certain mobility upwards, he created a credible and stable slot for himself in the highly competitive Bar of the Allahabad High Court. The rest is history.

He was elevated to the Bench of the Allahabad High Court in early 1983, and after some years moved out as the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in 1996, and was soon thereafter, picked up for elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court in 1997, where he rose to become the Chief Justice of India in 2002.

As the CJI, he left deep imprints of his utmost judicial honesty and humanistic values. For what he did as the head of the Indian judiciary, Mr Khare emerged as a ‘great role model not only for the future CJIs but also for all the Chief Justices of India,” had remarked senior and well-known lawyer PP Rao of the Supreme Court soon after Khare retired from office in May 2002. Said Khare to this scribe then, “I did whatever I could to uphold the dignity and independence of the judiciary, besides setting new judicial norms to reinforce people’s faith in the judiciary as the last post of hope for justice.” (HT, May 3, 2004)
For the people in Allahabad, there have been enough reasons to feel proud of Khare. More so now, because he has been chosen for the coveted Padma Vibhushan award. “I have always been a humble person, and I do not know if I really deserved the national honour,” said Khare when this scribe talked to him on phone at his residence on Wednesday night. Till then, he was unaware of the news about his being in the list announced for conferment of the coveted honour. It was from this scribe that probably the most pleasant news reached him first.

Khare, who stays in Noida after retirement, had told this scribe after his retirement that he would continue to serve the country and its people, and the cause of justice. He was the chairman of the committee which had been constituted by the Union HRD Ministry, to finalise a panel of three persons out of which one was chosen as the first vice-chancellor of the Allahabad University after it became a Central university recently.