Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah

Shah attended schooling at R.C. School in Ahmedabad and subsequently studied at Elphinstone college in Bombay.{{cite web|title=Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah|url=http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/judges/bio/jcshah.htm|website=Supreme Court of India|accessdate=11 March 2016}} He began practice as a lawyer at Ahmedabad in 1929.{{cite news|title=Former CJ J.C. Shah dead|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=P9oYG7HA76QC&dat=19910105&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|accessdate=6 February 2018|agency=Press Trust of India|publisher=The Indian Express|date=5 January 1991|page=1}} He was part of the legal team prosecuting Nathuram Godse and other defendants in the Gandhi assassination case. In 1949, he moved to the Bombay High Court where he was judge for 10 years. In October 1959, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice of India in December 1970. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Shah authored 728 judgments and sat on 2,094 benches.{{Cite web |title=J.C. Shah |url=https://www.scobserver.in/judges/j-c-shah/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=Supreme Court Observer |language=en-US}}

{{main|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 Shah Commission. It was set up by the central government under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 to probe excesses committed during the Emergency in India.{{cite web|last1=Sen|first1=Vikramajil|last2=Singh|first2=Ajay|title=The law: What after Shah Commission?|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/the-law-what-after-shah-commission/1/436096.html|website=India Today|date=23 April 2015 |accessdate=11 March 2016}} 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."

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.{{sfn|Sen|2002|p=141}} 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.{{sfn|Sen|2002|p=140-141}} 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.{{sfn|Sen|2002|p=141}} 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.{{sfn|Kumar|Agrawal|1993|p=193ff}} 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.{{sfn|Sen|2002|p=141}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Kumar |first1=Virendra |last2=Agrawal |first2=S. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4gb2Ry4JLGYC&pg=PA193 |title=1977. Volume 15, Part 1 of Committees and commissions in India |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=1993 |isbn=978-8170224846}}
• {{cite book |last=Sen |first=Sankar |author1-link=Sankar Sen (police officer) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cCo4OlbeDY8C&pg=PA135 |title=Tryst with law enforcement and human rights: four decades in Indian police |publisher=APH Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-81-7648-340-7}}

• [http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/judges/bio/jcshah.htm Bio on Supreme Court of India Website]
• [http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=915 Reference to the "late Justice J C Shah"]

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{{succession box | before = Mohammad Hidayatullah | title = Chief Justice of India | years = 17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971| after =Sarv Mittra Sikri}}

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{{Chief Justices of India}}

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Category:Chief justices of India

Category:Gujarati people

Category:Scholars from Ahmedabad

Category:1906 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:20th-century Indian lawyers

Category:20th-century Indian judges

Category:Elphinstone College alumni

Category:Chief justices of the Bombay High Court

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