Rohinton Fali Nariman (born 13 August 1956) is a former

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. Before being elevated as a judge, he practised as a

senior counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

at the Supreme Court. He was appointed the

Solicitor General of India The Solicitor General of India (SGI) is subordinate to the Attorney General for India. They are the second-highest law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is assisted by Additional Solicitor Generals of India (Addl. SGIs) ...

on 23 July 2011.http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2287939.ece , Rohinton Nariman appointed Solicitor-General He also served as a member of the

Bar Council of India The Bar Council of India is a statutory body established under the section 4 of Advocates Act 1961 that regulates the legal practice and legal education in India. Its members are elected from amongst the lawyers in India and as such represents ...

. He was designated as a

Senior Counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

by Justice Venkatachaliah (the then

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...

) in 1993 at the early age of 37.

Early life and education

Nariman is the son of

Fali Sam Nariman Fali Sam Nariman (born 10 January 1929) is an Indian jurist. He is the senior advocate to the Supreme Court of India since 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. Nariman is an internationally recognised jur ...

, a distinguished Indian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

. He received his early education in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, at the

Cathedral and John Connon School The Cathedral & John Connon School is a co-educational private school founded in 1860 and located in Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra.Shri Ram College of Commerce Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Founded in 1926 by industrialist Lala Shri Ram, it is widely regarded as the most prestigious college for commerce and economics in India. SRCC was ranke ...

. He completed his

LL.B Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

fro
Campus Law Centre
of the

Faculty of Law, University of Delhi The Faculty of Law, University of Delhi is the law department of the University of Delhi. It has the unique distinction of producing the largest number of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India. It is situated in the north campus of the ...

, where he ranked 2nd in the batch. He then went to

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

for his LL.M. degree in 1980–81 where he was taught by stalwarts like Professor Laurence Tribe and Professor Unger.

Legal career

Nariman joined the Bar as an advocate in 1979.Legal Era – Rohinton Nariman To Be New Solicitor General
Last Retrieved on 4 February 2013.

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

has placed him among top ten lawyers of his time.India's top 10 lawyers – Times of India
Last retrieved on 4 February 2013 After his year at Harvard, he practised Maritime Law in New York at Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens for a year. He has been designated as a

Senior Advocate The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdictio ...

at the

from 15 December 1993 at the young age of 37. While appointing him Chief Justice Venkatachalaiah amended the rules as Nariman was of 37 years and the minimum age for being made a senior in the Supreme Court was 45. He has been practising law for the last 30 years and has more than 500 reported Supreme Court judgments to his credit. He is an expert in Comparative Constitutional Law and Civil Law. He has argued numerous cases, including the constitutional bench judgments of P.A. Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra and State of Punjab v. Devans Modern Breweries Ltd. One of Mr. Nariman's latest cases, Enercon (India) Ltd. v. Enercon GMBH, Civil Appeal No. 2086 of 2014, has clarified the arbitration law on the seat/venue dichotomy. Khoday Distilleries Ltd. v. Scotch Whisky Assn., (2008) 10 SCC 723 is a landmark case in trademark law wherein the arguments of Mr. Nariman that the class of buyer may be relevant to the determination of a passing off action and it is not always the test of the prudent man which would apply was accepted. He has argued the cases for theatre artist

Vijay Tendulkar Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (6 January 1928 – 19 May 2008) was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi. His Marathi plays established him as ...

and the controversy-marred play

Sakharam Binder ''Sakharam Binder'' (Sakharam, the Binder) is a play by Indian playwright Vijay Tendulkar written in Marathi and first performed in 1972. It was banned in India in 1974. It was produced and directed by Kamlakar Sarang. Synopsis Sakharam Binder, th ...

. He claims that these two cases have been the turning points of his life. He has handled the high-profile case of gas sharing between the

Reliance Industries Limited Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is o ...

(led by

Mukesh Ambani Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Acco ...

) and

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group or popularly known as Reliance ADA Group or simply Reliance Group is an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company, which was formed after Dhirubhai Ambani's business was divided up, ...

(which is led by

Anil Ambani Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (born 4 June 1959) is an Indian businessman. He was the chairman of Reliance Group (also known as Reliance ADA Group), which was created in July 2006 following a demerger from Reliance Industries Limited. He leads a numbe ...

). He has set up the Supreme Court Lawyers Welfare Trust which works for the welfare of lawyers and encourages young talent.

Solicitor General

Nariman was of 55 years of age when he was appointed the

.http://parsikhabar.net/individuals/rohinton-nariman-to-be-appointed-solicitor-general-of-india/3254/ , Rohinton Nariman To Be Appointed Solicitor General of India

Resignation

After being at the post of

for eighteen months, Nariman resigned on 4 February 2013. The reason for this is not known though it was said that he shared a poor rapport with the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar

Supreme Court Judge

Nariman was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on 7 July 2014. He is the fifth Supreme Court judge to be elevated directly from the Bar. He retired on attaining the age of 65 years on 12 August 2021.

Book

In November 2016, Nariman's book on the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

religion, ''The Inner Fire'', was released. The book is an analysis of the

Gathas The Gathas ()"Gatha"
''

Notable judgements

Freedom of Speech

Nariman and

Jasti Chelameswar Jasti Chelameswar (born 23 June 1953) is the former Judge of Supreme Court of India. He retired on 22 June 2018 as the second most senior Supreme court judge. Earlier, he was the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and Gauhati High Court. He ...

formed the two judge bench of the Supreme Court of India which struck down a controversial law which gave Indian police the power to arrest anyone accused of posting emails or other electronic messages which "causes annoyance or inconvenience". The judges held Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which made such offenses punishable up to three years imprisonment, to be unconstitutional. The judgement was authored by Nariman. According to Nariman and Chelameswar, several terms in the law they were striking down were "open-ended, undefined and vague" which made them nebulous in nature. According to the judges: "What may be offensive to one may not be offensive to another. What may cause annoyance or inconvenience to one may not cause annoyance or inconvenience to another." In their judgement, the judges clarified that a distinction needs to be made between discussion, advocacy, and incitement. Any discussion, or advocacy of even an unpopular cause cannot be restricted, and it is only when such discussion or advocacy reaches the level of incitement whereby it causes public disorder or affects the security of the state can it be curbed. The judgement has been welcomed for defending the Indian Constitution's ideals of tolerance and the constitutional provisions of free speech. It has been pointed out that the controversial law struck down by Nariman and Chelameswar had gained notoriety after many people in India started getting arrested for seemingly innocuous reasons on the ground that they had violated the now scrapped law.

Triple Talaq

In a landmark judgement, a five-judge Bench struck down instantaneous

triple talaq Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband and some initiated by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are ''talaq'' ( repudiation), ''khulʿ'' (mutual divorce or ransom divorce) Historically, the rules ...

by 3–2 majority and termed it void, illegal and unconstitutional. While Justice

Kurian Joseph Kurian Joseph (born 30 November 1953) is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India. Previously, he has served as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court and Judge of Kerala High Court. Early life Kurian Joseph was born on 30 November ...

, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice

Uday Umesh Lalit Uday Umesh Lalit (born 9 November 1957) is an Indian lawyer & former Supreme Court Judge, who served as the 49th Chief Justice of India. Previously, he has served as a judge of Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation as a judge, he practis ...

struck down the practice; Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice Abdul Nazeer asked Parliament to make a law in this regard. Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman judgement was against the practice of Triple Talaq where he stated "Triple Talaq is a disapproved form of divorce. Even the Hanafi law says triple talaq is sinful. 1937 Act recognizes triple talaq and therefore does not violate Article 13. It is not possible for the court to fold his hands when petitioners come to court. Practice of triple talaq is bad and can be tested as legislation."

Sabarimala

Justice Nariman, along with Justice

Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian judge who is appointed as the List of chief justices of India, 50th and current Chief Justice of India. He is a former chief justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former ju ...

, delivered a dissent in Kantaru Rajeevaru v. Indian Young Lawyers Association. He held that the decision of five judges in the Sabarimala case which held that women of the ages of ten and fifty shall not be denied entry to the Sabarimala temple is not a fit case for the exercise of review jurisdiction as the judgment does not suffer from an error apparent on the face of record. The dissent observed that the executive is under a constitutional obligation to implement the decisions of the Supreme Court even if they were not parties before them. Justice Nariman observed:

Bona fide criticism of a judgment, albeit of the highest court of the land, is certainly permissible, but thwarting, or encouraging persons to thwart, the directions or orders of the highest court cannot be countenanced in our Constitutional scheme of things.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nariman, Rohinton Solicitors General of India Living people Parsi people from Mumbai 20th-century Indian judges 1956 births Indian legal scholars Indian Senior Counsel Harvard Law School alumni Justices of the Supreme Court of India 21st-century Indian judges Scholars from Mumbai Shri Ram College of Commerce alumni Faculty of Law, University of Delhi alumni Supreme Court of India lawyers