Justice Nariman bids adieu to SC bench after enriching court's docket with key verdicts

Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman who demitted office on Thursday after over seven years immensely enriched judiciary's docket with path-breaking verdicts including declaring privacy as a fundamental right, setting aside an IT Act provision enabling easy arrests, decriminalising consensual gay sex and permitting women of all ages to enter Kerala's Sabarimala temple.
Justice Nariman, the illustrious son of noted jurist Fali Nariman, is an ordained Parsi Priest and among the select company of five lawyers who directly joined the apex court bench leaving a very successful career as an advocate on July 7, 2014.

A graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Justice Nariman did his LL.B and LLM from Delhi and Harvard University respectively and got the unique distinction of getting designated as a senior advocate at the age of 37 years, instead of stipulated 45 years, as then Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah amended rules in 1993 for him.

With his retirement, the strength of judges in the apex court will come down to 25 as against the sanctioned 34 including the CJI and will lead to reconstitution of the collegium leading to the entry of Justice L Nageswara Rao.

Justice Nariman, who disposed of nearly 13,565 cases as judge, was part of the benches which delivered over 1,000 judgements and even a few days before his superannuation, he rendered two important ones having long-term impact on commercial and political scenarios in the country.

In an unprecedented verdict to check criminalisation of politics, Justice Nariman on August 10 held nine political parties including the ruling BJP and JD (U) in Bihar guilty of contempt and fined them for violating its February, 2020 order on publication of criminal antecedents of their candidates for the assembly polls.

“The nation continues to wait, and is losing patience. Cleansing the polluted stream of politics is obviously not one of the immediate pressing concerns of the legislative branch of government,” said the verdict authored by him.

Few days before this, he rendered the verdict giving relief to e-commerce giant Amazon by holding that Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award, restraining the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail, is valid and enforceable under Indian arbitration laws.

One of the verdicts having the lasting impact is that in which he upheld the Constitutional validity of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Justice Nariman, who has passion for western classical music, is an avid reader of history, philosophy, literature and science and enjoys nature walks.

He authored many historic and path-breaking verdicts besides being part of such benches, and one of the famous ones was the Shreya Singhal case in which he struck down section 66A of the Information Technology Act, empowering law enforcement agencies to arrest persons for offensive social media posts, by holding it violative of freedom of speech and expression.

He was part of a Constitution bench judgement which held that the death-row convicts be accorded the open court hearing while seeking review of the judgement sending them to gallows.

The protracted trial against persons like L K Advani and others in the Babri demolition case was put on fast track by Justice Nariman who also wrote separate but concurring verdicts on subjects like Triple Talaq, Sabarimala entry and right to privacy.

In doing away with the triple talaq, Justice Nariman had laid out a new rule of jurisprudence that manifest arbitrariness can be a ground for striking down a law.

He wrote verdict that struck down Section 377 of the IPC and set it aside to the extent that the law decriminalised consensual gay sex.

Justice Nariman was categorical that “persons who are homosexual have a fundamental” right to live with dignity and are entitled to the protection of equal laws, and are entitled to be treated in society as human beings without any stigma being attached to any of them”.

Justice Nariman was part of the five-judge bench which, by a majority of 4:1, held that irrespective of age, all women have the right to enter the hill-top Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

He was part of the constitution which had set aside the provision on adultery in the IPC, saying that it treated women as chattel.

In a verdict, which can curtail custodial torture, Justice Nariman delivered the verdict ordering installation of CCTV in police stations and in CBI and NIA offices where accused are quizzed.

The suo motu action to stop ‘kanwar yatra' and on ‘Bakrid' festivities in Kerala due to COVID-19 situation on the ground that right to life cannot be compromised has been hailed by many.

In affirmative action, a Constitution bench comprising him in September 2018 upheld the creamy layer principle of excluding the affluent among SC/STs from the ambit of reservation.