The former Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia passed away in Mumbai . He was 68 years old.
He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on 08.10.1991 and later appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Bombay High Court on 23.03.1993. He was appointed as Chief Justice of the Uttaranchal High Court on 5.8.2003. Later, he was elevated to the the Supreme Court of India on 18.12.2003. He was appointed as Chief Justice of India on 12.05.2010 and retired on 29.09.2012. He presided over many benches which gave directions on many public interest matters. Some of the important judgments were
- Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India, (2012) 6 SCC 1 – Unaided minority and non-minority institutions were excluded from the purview of RTE Act, 2009.
- Vodafone International Holdings BV v. Union of India, (2012) 6 SCC 613 – Court removed uncertainties with respect to imposition of taxes and recognized the principle that if motive of the transaction is to avoid tax, it does not necessarily lead to assumption of evasion of taxes.
- Centre for PIL v. Union of India, (2011) 4 SCC 1- Appointment of Central Vigilance Commission. The Central Vigilance Commissioner must possess unimpeachable and personal integrity.
- Offshore Holdings (P) Ltd. v. Bangalore Development Authority, (2011) 3 SCC 139 – Bangalore Development Act, 1898 held constitutionally valid and it was considered to be within the competence of State Legislature.
- Natural Resources Allocation, In re, Special Reference No. 1 of 2012, (2012) 10 SCC 1 -Fairness in Allocation/Alienation/Distribution of Natural resources
- Sahara India Real Estate Corpn. Ltd. v. SEBI, (2012) 10 SCC 603- Postponement of media trial considered fair and reasonable when there is a substantial risk of prejudice in the later or connected trials.
- Competition Commission of India v. SAIL, (2010) 10 SCC 744 – Primary Objective of Competition Law, discussed.