Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha itle: Sinhaof Shahabad (now Bhojpur),

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

(1 February 1899 – 12 November 1986) was the 6th

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (CJI) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India and the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the President of India to appoint, as recommended by the outg ...

(1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964). He also served as the president of the

Bharat Scouts and Guides The Bharat Scouts and Guides (BSG) is the national Scouting and Guiding association of India. The national headquarters of BSG is recognised by the Government of India. Scouting was founded in India in 1909 as an overseas branch of the Scout A ...

from April 1965 to February 1967. Sinha served as the Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

from 1 October 1959 to 31 January 1964. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Sinha authored 137 judgments and sat on 684 benches.

Life

Sinha was born and brought up in a prominent upper caste

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

family of Rajwada Gajiyapur Estate, Arrah (present Bhojpur) District. His grandson

B. P. Singh Brijendrapal Singh, better known as B. P. Singh is an Indian television producer born in Dehradun, India. He is the creator and director-producer of the Indian TV series '' CID'' (1998-2018; 2024present), one of the longest-running TV serie ...

is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. A deeply religious man, following his retirement, Sinha led a quiet life mostly devoted to spiritual pursuits, though he did accept a number of private arbitration cases. Becoming blind in his later years, he died in 1986.

Career

He was educated at the

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur ...

Zilla School,

Patna College Patna College is a constituent state aided College of Patna University which was established in 1863 during the British Raj. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in science, arts and commerce as well as some vocational courses like ...

and

Patna Law College Patna Law College is public law college in Patna, in the Indian state of Bihar. This is affiliated to the Patna University and courses were approved by the Bar Council of India of New Delhi. History Patna Law College was established in July 19 ...

. Sinha topped the list of candidates at the

B.A. (Hons) A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1919 and

M.A Ma, MA, or mA may refer to: Academia * Master of Arts, a degree award * Marin Academy, a high school in San Rafael, California * Menlo-Atherton High School, a public high school in Atherton, California * Minnehaha Academy, a private high schoo ...

in 1921 at the Patna University. He was a Vakil in the

Patna High Court The Patna High Court of Judicature at Patna (commonly known as Patna High Court) is the High Courts of India, High Court of the Indian state, state of Bihar. It was established on 3 February 1916 by British colonial government and was later aff ...

from 1922to 1927. Later he became an advocate in 1927 and also got the position of Lecturer at the Govt. Law College, Patna, both of which he remained till 1935. He also was a member of the Senate of the Faculty of Law and of the Board of Examiners in Law, Patna Univ. He became the member of the Court of the

Benaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

where he was a Government Pleader from 1935 to 1939. He was Srimati Radhika Sinha Gold Medalist for standing first in History. He became an Assistant Govt. Advocate in 1940 and the Judge of Patna High Court in 1943. He was elevated to the position of the Chief Justice of Nagpur High Court in 1951 and eventually to the Judge of Supreme Court in December 1954 at which he remained till September 30, 1959. He finally became the

in 1959 and remained so till 1964 and then he retired.

Published works

* ''Reminiscences and Reflections of a Chief Justice'' , 1985, 1st ed.

References

Supreme Court of India
Biographies 1899 births 1986 deaths Chief justices of India Scouting and Guiding in India Patna University alumni People from Patna Judges of the Patna High Court Chief justices of the Madhya Pradesh High Court 20th-century Indian judges 20th-century Indian lawyers {{India-law-bio-stub