Sir Srinivas Varadachariar (20 June 18816 September 1970) was an Indian jurist who was the first Indian chief justice of the Federal Court of India when he served as the acting chief justice of the court between 25 April 1943 and 7 June 1943. He was also a judge of the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

and of the Federal Court of India. Varadachariar headed the ad-hoc committee of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the provisions to set up 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 ...

Biography

Varadachariar was born on 20 June 1881 into a family of Iyengar priests, with limited financial means. His father was the priest to the house of lawyer and jurist Sir

V. Bhashyam Aiyangar Diwan Bahadur Sir Vembakkam Bhashyam Aiyangar (January 1844 – 18 November 1908) was an eminent lawyer and jurist who served as the first Indian Advocate-General of Madras Province and also as a Judge of the Madras High Court. Posts h ...

, the first Indian

Advocate-General of Madras The Advocate-General of Madras was charged with advising the Government of the British administered Madras Presidency on legal matters. The Presidency existed from 1652 to 1950. Prior to 1858, when it was administered by the East India Company, t ...

. Varadachariar started as an apprentice under Aiyangar and later under

P. S. Sivaswami Iyer Sir Pazhamaneri Sundaram Sivaswami Iyer (7 February 1864 – 5 November 1946) was a prominent lawyer, administrator and statesman who served as the Advocate General of Madras from 1907 to 1911. Sivaswami Iyer was born on 7 February 1864 ...

. He was admitted into the bar in 1905 and rose to become the judge of the

in 1934. Varadachariar was knighted and appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of India, the forerunner to the

, in 1939. He was appointed by the then Governor-General of India, Victor Hope. Varadachariar succeeded

M. R. Jayakar Mukund Ramrao Jayakar (M.R. Jayakar) (13 November 1873 – 10 March 1959, Bombay) was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Poona. He was a lawyer, scholar and politician. He was a prominent freedom fighter. Jayakar was born in a Marat ...

who stepped down as a judge when he was appointed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. At the time, the Federal Court of India had three judges, a British judge, and two Indian judges with one Hindu and one Muslim judge. Varadachariar served as the acting chief justice of the Federal Court of India between 25 April 1943 and 7 June 1943, when the first chief justice of the court Sir

Maurice Linford Gwyer Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer, (25 April 1878 – 12 October 1952) was a British lawyer, judge, and academic administrator. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University from 1938 to 1950, and Chief Justice of India from 1937 to 1943). He is ...

stepped down. In serving as the acting chief justice, he was the first Indian chief justice of the Federal Court of India. Amongst the significant cases presided by Varadachariar as the Chief Justice included ''King Emperor v Beonarilal Sharma'', a case that is noted to have cost him his position as the permanent chief justice of the court. Despite being the senior most judge in the court, he was succeeded by British judge William Patrick Spens. As a judge, Varadachariar retired from the Federal Court of India in 1946 after serving for seven years. Varadachariar was also the chairman of the Government of India's First Central Pay Commission in 1946. The commission's recommendations were accepted by the government in May 1947. He was also the chairman of the Income Tax Investigation Commission set up under the Taxation of Income act of 1947. Varadachariar headed the ad-hoc committee of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the provisions to set up the Supreme Court of India. He later served as the president of the board of the Lady Sivaswami Iyer Girls' School in Madras. In addition to legal learnings, Varadachariar was a scholar of Sanskrit.

Published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varadachariar, Srinivas 1881 births 1970 deaths Indian knights Indian Knights Bachelor Indian lawyers Indian judges Judges of the Madras High Court Lawyers in British India