Second Senior Most SC Judge Rohinton Fali Nariman To Retire Today, Know About His Key Verdicts & Achievements

Justice Rohinton has been part of the Supreme Court Collegium since March 2019. He will now be replaced by Justice Nageshwar Rao in the collegium this week.

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New Delhi: The second most senior judge of the Supreme Court, Rohinton Fali Nariman, is retiring on Thursday. He is known for his clear and frank speech. In 35 years of practicising law, he managed to feature more than 500 Supreme Court judgments in his record.

As Justice, he delivered several important judgments in his seven-year Supreme Court service. He has pronounced the verdict on Sabarimala temple, abolition of triple talaq, repeal of Section 66A of the IT Act, LGBT rights, investigation of those killed in Manipur police encounters among other cases.

Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman's early education was in Mumbai. He pursued BCom from Delhi University and then earned a law degree. He studied LLM at Harvard Law School. Then he joined a law firm in New York as an advocate for a year. He then came to India and started practicing in the Supreme Court. At the age of 37, he became a senior advocate of the apex court. The minimum age to become a senior advocate of the Supreme Court was 45 years then. But Supreme Court changed its rules for him.

A staunch advocate of his religion
Rohinton Fali was a Supreme Court judge who was also a staunch advocate of his religion. Rohinton Fali belongs to a family of priests. At the age of 12, he was initiated into becoming a priest of the Parsi religion in Bandra Agyari. He has since performed the marriage and children's rites of many members of the Parsi community. 

Rohinton Fali Nariman was appointed as Solicitor General by the Congress-led UPA government on July 27, 2011. But he resigned from his post on February 4, 2013, due to some differences. Then, on July 7, 2014, the Modi government cleared his name for an appointment as a Supreme Court judge.

A look at Justice Rohinton's achievements

• Appointed as priest in Bandra Agyari.
• Lectures at Parsi Association in New York.
• Lecture on 'Search' at IIC Delhi in 2000.
• In 2005, he held many discussions on religion in Philadelphia.
• He gave two lectures in Ahmedabad in 2003 at the invitation of Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat.
• Conducted Gatha classes fortnightly in Delhi for two years.
• Solicitor General of India from 27 July 2011 to 4 February 2013.
• Appointed to the Supreme Court on July 7, 2014.