Vishweshwar Nath Khare is a retired Indian judge who served as the 33rd Chief Justice of India, from 19 December 2002 to 2 May 2004.

[citation needed] Khare started his career as an Advocate in the Allahabad High Court in 1961, where he practised on Civil, Writ and Revenue petitions.

[4] The decision of the Supreme Court led to the imposition of Emergency in India for a period of 19 months, the only suspension of democracy the country has seen since Independence in 1947.

Speaking to The Hindu newspaper when he retired[5] he said, "I found there was complete collusion between the accused and the prosecution in Gujarat, throwing rule of law to the winds.

I was anguished and pained by the turn of events during the trial of the riot cases but was determined to salvage the criminal justice delivery system.

[7][8] In a 2012 interview, Khare gave details about the Best Bakery case and the Gulbarg Society massacre in explaining why he believed the 2002 Gujarat Violence was an instance of a "state sponsored genocide".

[9] Since retiring as Chief Justice of India, Khare comments occasionally on national television and press on issues of jurisprudence.