P.C. Pant

Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant graduated from Allahabad University with a degree of Bachelor of Science, followed by an L.L.B. from Lucknow University. He joined the Bar Council at Allahabad in 1973 and joined the Uttar Pradesh Judicial Service in 1976. He has held different posts in Judicial Service at Ghaziabad, Pilibhit, Ranikhet, Bareilly and Meerut. He was then promoted to the Uttar Pradesh Higher Judicial Service in 1990 and joined as Additional District Judge of the Bahraich district. He was the Joint Registrar in the High Court of Allahabad.

After the creation of the state of Uttarakhand, he served as its first Judicial Secretary. He also held the post of District and Sessions Judge at the Nainital district. Thereafter he was appointed the Registrar General of the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital. He was confirmed as a permanent Judge of the Uttarakhand High Court on 19th February 2008.

He was appointed the Chief Justice of the High Court of Meghalaya at Shillong on September 20th 2013. He was elevated to the Supreme Court of India on August 13th 2014.

Notable Judgments

He was a part of the bench with Justice Dipak Misra which upheld the criminalisation of defamation. Many saw the judgement as a blow to the freedom of speech and expression in India.

He was a part of the bench with Justice Dipak Misra, which held that the destruction of places of worship by a dominant group is not a violation of Article 21 right to life.