Justice Natwarlal Harilal Bhagwati (7 August 1894 – 7 January 1970) was a Judge at 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 ...

from 1952 to 1959 and the

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and former Commonwealth n ...

of Banaras Hindu University from 1960 till 1966. Earlier, he had served as the Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

during 1949-51. He is also father to the

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

Jagdish Bhagwati as well as

P. N. Bhagwati Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (21 December 1921 – 15 June 2017) was the 17th Chief Justice of India, serving from 12 July 1985 until his retirement on 20 December 1986. He introduced the concepts of public interest litigation and absolu ...

, the 17th

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 ...

and S. N. (Sanat Natwarlal) Bhagwati, former president of the

Neurological Society of India The Neurological Society of India (NSI) is the apex body representing neuroscientists of the country. It was founded in 1951 by Jacob Chandy, Balasubramaniam Ramamurthi, S. T. Narasimhan, and Baldev Singh (neurologist), Baldev Singh, who together ...

Education

Bhagwati initially studied at the

Baroda College The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of ...

. He got his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...

with honours in 1914 and was a Senior Daxina Fellow of Bombay University for the period 1914–17.

Vice-Chancellorship

One year into his retirement from the Bench, Bhagwati was made the Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University. Gadbois Jr., a scholar of the Indian Supreme Court's history, suspects this to be for political reasons. It should be noted, as Gadbois Jr. does too, that Bhagwati had previously been the

of the

from November 1949 to that of 1951. This was in conjunction with his judgeship at the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

. Before that, he had been a Senate member of Bombay University in 1947, a Syndicate member of the university and the Vice-President of the Board of Visitors for

Government Law College, Bombay The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra. Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...

in '48. Bhagwati was also a professor at the Government Law College in

Bombay 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- ...

from 1929 to 1931. According to a note on the family history on his son Jagdish Bhagwati's home page at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, Natwarlal Bhagwati was a patron of

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

during his term at BHU where he was instrumental in the award of an

honorary An honorary position is one given as an honor, with no duties attached, and without payment. Other uses include: * Honorary Academy Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, United States * Honorary Aryan, a status in Nazi Germany ...

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

by the university to Omkarnath Thakur. It is also claimed that Justice Bhagwati played a role in the selection of Jarava Lal Mehta and Jayant Narlikar to be respectively sent to Germany and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

for further studies. Bhagwati died on 7 January 1970 at his residence in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhagwati, Natwarlal Harilal 1894 births 1970 deaths Elphinstone College alumni Justices of the Supreme Court of India Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni University of Mumbai people Vice Chancellors of Banaras Hindu University