Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 27 April 1949) is an Indian judge who served as the 40th

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 ...

, holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career, Sathasivam was appointed the 21st

Governor of Kerala The governor of Kerala is the constitutional head of state of the southern Indian state of Kerala. The governor is appointed by the President of India, and holds office at the President's pleasure. The governor is ''de jure'' head of the govern ...

from 5 September 2014 to 4 September 2019. Sathasivam is the second judge from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

to become the CJI, after M. Patanjali Sastri. He is also the first former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to be appointed the Governor of a state. He is the first Governor of Kerala to be appointed by the

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

Government.

Early life

Sathasivam was born on 27 April 1949 in Kadappanallur near

Bhavani Bhavānī (also known as Bhāvya, Tulajā, Turajā, Tvarita, Aṃbā, Jagadambā and Aṃbē) is an epithet associated with Durga. Bhavani translates to "giver of life," meaning the power of nature or the source of creative energy. She is cons ...

Erode district Erode District is one of the 38 Districts of Tamil Nadu, districts in the south Indian States and union territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It was the largest district by area in the state before the formation of Tirupur district in 2009 ...

. He graduated from Government Law College, Chennai after completing his BA degree Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College,

Sivakasi Sivakasi is a city in Virudhunagar District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The city is known for firecrackers and match factories that produce 70% of the country's output. The printing industries in Sivakasi produce 30% of the total diaries ...

Personal life

Sathasivam has a skin condition called

vitiligo Vitiligo (, ) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color. The cause of vitiligo is unknown, but it may be related to immune system changes, genetic factors, stress, or sun exposure, and susceptibili ...

. He is married to Saraswathi.

Career

Sathasivam enrolled as an advocate on 25 July 1973 at Madras. He was then appointed to the post of additional government pleader, and later as the special government pleader in the

Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...

. He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Madras High Court on 8 January 1996, and transferred to the

Punjab and Haryana High Court Punjab and Haryana High Court is the common High Court for the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh based in Chandigarh, India. Sanctioned strength of Judges of this High Court is 85 consisting of 64 Pe ...

on 20 April 2007. He was elevated to the post of Judge of Supreme Court on 21 August 2007. During his tenure as chief justice, he was the chairman of the General Council of the Gujarat National Law University. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Sathasivam authored 338 judgments. He succeeded Sheila Dikshit as the

in August 2014.

Notable judgments

Sathasivam authored several path-breaking judgments including the Reliance Gas Judgment (May 2010) where he observed that "in a national democracy like ours, the national assets belong to the people" and "the government owns such assets for the purposes of developing them in the interests of the people". He also delivered the verdict in the triple-murder case of Graham Staines and commuted the death sentence of

Dara Singh Dara Singh Randhawa (born Deedar Singh Randhawa; 19 November 1928 – 12 July 2012) was an Indian professional wrestler, actor, director and politician. He started acting in 1952 and was the first sportsman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha ...

to life imprisonment in a controversial judgment. On 19 April 2010, he delivered the judgement in the Jessica Lal murder case of 29 April 1999. Along with Justice B. S. Chauhan, Sathasivam delivered the judgement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, sentencing

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

actor

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor, playback singer and film producer who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi films. Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 160 films. ...

to five years' imprisonment under the Arms Act. Dutt was asked to serve out the remainder of his sentence. According to ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', "In a number of judgements, he athasivamcautioned the courts against awarding lesser sentence in crimes against women and children and showing undue sympathy towards the accused by altering the sentence to the extent of period already undergone." In January 2014, a three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sathasivam commuted sentences of 15 death-row convicts, ruling that the "inordinate and inexplicable delay is a ground for commuting death penalty to life sentence".

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 ...

ruled that delays ranging from seven to 11 years in the disposal of mercy pleas are grounds for clemency. The same panel also passed a set of guidelines for the execution of a death row convict, which includes a 14-day gap from the receipt of communication of the rejection of first mercy petition to the scheduled execution date, after going through the Shatrughan Chouhan vs Union of India case.

References

External links

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sathasivam, P 1949 births Living people Judges of the Madras High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India Indian Tamil people Chief justices of India Governors of Kerala University of Madras alumni People from Erode district Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court 21st-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian judges People with vitiligo