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Best: Unquestionably H.R Khanna. To take on tyrants even at the risk of harming ones career is sadly not a quality often observed among Indias supreme court judges.
Strong second-place contenders: Chelmeshwar, Hidayathulla, Sathasivam, UU Lalit, RF Nariman, maybe Kurian, maybe Indu Malhotra. Fairly independent minded judges, many of whom demonstrated deep appreciation for the Constitution and for the rule of law generally. No major corruption allegations; they did their work quietly and did their work well.
Worst- I don't know, maybe Ranjan Gogoi, or Dipak Misra, or K. Subba Rao. Maybe K G Ballakrishnan Big corruption allegations make everyone lose faith in the law.
Both best and worst: Krishna Iyer, Bhagwati, the Chandrachuds, Altamas Kabir, Katju.
These I go back and forth on. They're really good on some issues but seem to lose objectivity on others or have unseemly public lives that lead to loss of faith in the objectivity of the judiciary. They are all impactful though. Not forgettable. Law people can discuss their legacies for years and not come to an agreement.
1. Vivian Bose
2. Patanjali Sastri
3. Fazl Ali
4. Gajendragadkar
5. KK Mathew
6. Krishna Iyer
7. Ruma Pal
8. Radhakrishnan
9. RV Raveendran
10. Madan Lokur (somewhat diminished by his post retirement ranting)
11. RF Nariman
12. UU Lalit
I am excluding sitting judges from this list.
Some of the worst (there are many more):
1. Subba Rao
2. AN Ray
3. Bhagwati
4. Tulzapurkar
5. Chinnappa Reddy
6. JS Varma
7. Lahoti
8. M Katju
9. Cyriac Joseph (IYKYK)
10. Arijit Pasayat
11. Dipak Misra
12. Arun Mishra
Khanna (the sacrifice for doing the right thing will never be forgotten)
Hidayatullah (all round legend)
Lodha (simply the best, the most honest, the most independent and most importantly, who brought great change without self promotion in the last 50 years - improved infrastructure, came down on corrupt Govt and caged parrot CBI, gave the BCCI report in 1 year and stepped away, and always shunned the limelight)
https://www.barandbench.com/amp/story/columns/why-cant-a-judge-also-be-a-rockstar-a-study-of-the-interesting-life-of-justice-vivian-bose