Sam Piroj Bharucha (November 1, 1936) was the 30th

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 ...

, serving from November 2001 until his retirement in 2002. He began his legal career as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

of 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 ...

in 1960, and was appointed an Additional Judge in 1977. His judgeship was made permanent in 1978, and in 1991 he was appointed Chief Justice of the

Karnataka High Court Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. In 1992, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice in 2001. Bharucha is responsible for many significant legal decisions. He was part of the five judge constitutional panel which unanimously ruled on the 2001 dismissal of

J. Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

as Chief Minister of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. It was the first and only such dismissal of a chief minister in India's history.

References

1937 births Living people Parsi people Chief justices of India Chief Justices of the Karnataka High Court Gujarati people Judges of the Bombay High Court 20th-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian judges Presidents of the International Law Association {{india-law-bio-stub