R. S. Pathak
| R.S. Pathak | |
|---|---|
| 18th Chief Justice of India | |
|
In office 21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989 |
|
| Nominated by | Collegium of judges headed by CJI Y V Chandrachud |
| Appointed by | President Giani Zail Singh |
| Preceded by | P. N. Bhagwati |
| Succeeded by | E.S. Venkataramiah |
| Chief Justice of Bombay High Court | |
| Preceded by | Prakash Chandra Tatia D. N. Patel (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 November 1924 |
| Died | 17 November 2007 (aged 82) |
Raghunandan Swarup Pathak, (R. S. Pathak) (25 November 1924 – 17 November 2007) was the 18th Chief Justice of India. He was the son of Gopal Swarup Pathak, a former Vice President of India.
He was one of the three judges from India to have been on the International Court of Justice in The Hague (the others being Nagendra Singh who served as its President from 1985 to 1988 and former Supreme Court justice Dalveer Bhandari, who currently sits upon the World Court). He did his schooling from St. Joseph's College, Allahabad and had studied law at Allahabad University. After practising law at Allahabad, he became Judge at Allahabad High Court in 1962 and later Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in 1972.
Pathak was made a judge at Supreme Court of India in 1978 and became its 18th Chief Justice on 21 December 1986. He is remembered as a judge who was a man of the middle and was able to bring relative peace to the Court. He served as Chief justice for two and a half years during which time a dozen judges were appointed to the Court. Five of them — Madhukar Hiralal Kania, Lalit Mohan Sharma, Manepalle Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah, Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, and Jagdish Sharan Verma— went on to serve as Chief Justices between 1991 and 1998.
Pathak facilitated an out of court settlement between Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India in 1989 regarding the compensation to be paid for the Bhopal gas tragedy. The government had sought $3.3 billion but received only $470 million and the settlement resulted in the dropping of criminal liability charges against Carbide in the case. Within three months of his retirement Pathak became a member of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Supreme Court in 1991 upheld the settlement in 1991 thus ending Carbide's liability in the case.
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