Rana Bhagwandas
| Rana Bhagwandas Prithiani رانا بھگوان داس |
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Chief Justice of Pakistan Acting |
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In office 24 March 2007 – 20 July 2007 |
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| Appointed by | Pervez Musharraf |
| Preceded by | Javaid Iqbal (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 December 1942 Naseerabad, British Raj (now Pakistan) |
| Died | 23 February 2015 (aged 72) Karachi, Pakistan |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Rana Bhagwandas (20 December 1942 – 23 February 2015), was a senior judge and former acting chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP). He enjoyed extremely high reputation as a judge. He remained the acting CJP during the 2007 judicial crisis in Pakistan, and also briefly became the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan when the incumbent Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry went on foreign tours in 2005 and 2006, and thus became the first Hindu and the second non-Muslim to serve as chief of the highest court in Pakistan. Rana Bhagwandas also worked as the Chairman of Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan. He headed the interview panel for the selection of the federal civil servants in 2009.
Rana Bhagwandas was born on 20 December 1942 into a Hindu Sindhi Rajput family in Naseerabad, Larkana District (now Qambar Shahdadkot District) in Sindh. He studied law and received a Master's degree in Islamic studies. He joined the bar in 1965 and after two years of practising law with Abdul Ghafoor Bhurgri, an eminent lawyer of Larkana, joined the Pakistani judicial system in 1967. Later, he became a sessions judge, and subsequently, a judge of the Sindh High Court. He was not a fan of cricket, but remained a supporter of the Pakistan cricket team.
Rana Bhagwandas was promoted to the Sindh High Court in 1994. In 1999, his appointment to the superior judiciary was challenged by a constitutional petition (no. 1069/1999) against the Government of Pakistan and Judge Bhagwandas. The petition demanded that the judicial bench consisting of Judge Bhagwandas should be declared unconstitutional because of Bhagwandas' religion, claiming that only Muslims can be appointed to the superior judiciary. The petition was rejected, and the petitioner was condemned by other judges of the high court and by a significant number of lawyers.
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