With interests from theoretical physics to Buddhist philosophy,CJI designate is a ‘studious’ judge

“Sarosh was a studious man while we fellows were more easy-going,” says Justice MF Saldanha,who worked with Justice Kapadia in Bombay High Court as both a lawyer and judge in the early 1990s before retiring as Acting Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court.  

Speaking from Mangalore to TheIndian Express,Justice Saldanha said he and Justice Kapadia were “colleagues” in the Bar as well as the Bench. “Though Sarosh joined the Bench a couple of years later,” he says.

“By studious,I do not mean he was a bookworm though. Let me tell this one conversation we had after he became judge,” says Justice Saldanha.  “I once asked him—we were friends despite our difference in age— after he became judge why he still had to live in the suburbs,far away from the high court. I told him to shift out of the house there and get an official accommodation nearby.”

“He smiled and said that he still had not given up the practice of dropping his children at the school in the mornings after becoming a judge. He reasoned that it was one way he ensured that he reached court at his usual 9 am. The day at Bombay High Court starts very late,the court would open only by 11 am. So,he said,he had two hours and an empty court library to himself to do the preparatory work for the day,” Justice Saldanha says.  “Well,you know,nobody did that. I myself used to reach court at 10.15 am.”

Justice Saldanha says he does not plan to visit Delhi to congratulate his old colleague,but “may write a congratulatory letter” to the new Chief Justice of India,who lists Economics,Public Finance,Theoretical Physics and Hindu and Buddhist Philosophies as his hobbies.  

The 62-year-old Justice Kapadia began his judicial career at the Bombay High Court on October 8,1991. He spent about five months as the Chief Justice of the Uttaranchal High Court before being appointed as judge in the Supreme Court on December 18,2003. He will be at the helm of Indian judiciary till September 29,2012.

An expert in tax laws,Justice Kapadia believes every judge should be well-versed in financial laws.

As a crucial member of the Green Bench,which he is now going to lead,Justice Kapadia had once said the challenging job of a judge is to balance economic development with environment protection.

His 28-month term will be decisive to gauge the extent to which the Right to Information Act would apply to the higher judiciary. He would also be expected to find an answer to the mounting pendency of cases and corruption allegations against the judiciary.

“An exceptionally earnest and honest person. As a lawyer,he was trusted by the judges no matter which side he appeared for,” says Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati, a colleague of Justice Kapadia at the Bombay High Court Bar. “The Bar expects a lot from him. He will introduce a lot of changes in the system.”

Senior advocate KK Venugopal describes Justice Kapadia as a man of “great integrity”who wants to “innovate and expand the laws.” Justice Kapadia will take charge as the Chief Justice of India on May 12.