Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (25 November 1924 – 17 November 2007) was the 18th

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 ...

. He was the son of

Gopal Swarup Pathak Gopal Swarup Pathak (26 February 1896 – 4 October 1982) was the vice president of India from August 1969 to August 1974. He was the first Indian vice president not to succeed his superior as President. Life Born on 26 February 1896 at Ba ...

, a former

Vice President of India The vice president of India (ISO: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in t ...

. He was one of the four judges from India to have been on the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

(the others being Benegal Narsing Rau who served at ICJ during 1952 to 1953

Nagendra Singh Prince Sri Nagendra Singh (18 March 1914 – 11 December 1988; ) was an Indian lawyer and administrator who served as President of the International Court of Justice from 1985 to 1988. He was the first Indian Judge at International Court of J ...

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 St. Joseph's College, abbreviated to SJC, established in 1884, is a prominent Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, CISCE-affiliated elite school in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, with high rankings both in the state and in In ...

and had studied law at Allahabad University. After practising law at Allahabad, he became Judge at

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established o ...

in 1962 and later Chief Justice of

Himachal Pradesh High Court The Himachal Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh was born as a result of integration of twenty six Province and four Punjab hill States into a Centrally Administered Area ...

in 1972.

At the Supreme Court of India

Pathak was made a judge at

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 ...

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 Madhukar Hiralal "M. H." Kania (18 November 1927 – 1 February 2016) was an Indian judge who became the 23rd Chief Justice of India, serving from 13 December 1991 until his retirement on 17 November 1992. He was born in Bombay. His uncle was ...

, Lalit Mohan Sharma, Manepalle Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah,

Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi (25 March 1932 – 2 March 2023) was an Indian judge who was the 26th Chief Justice of India. After serving as a judge in the Gujarat High Court, Ahmadi was appointed judge to the Supreme Court in 1988. He was then elevat ...

, and

Jagdish Sharan Verma Jagdish Sharan Verma (18 January 1933 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian jurist who served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. He was the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2003, ...

— went on to serve as Chief Justices between 1991 and 1998. Over the course of his tenure on the Supreme Court, Pathak authored 267 judgments and sat on 812 benches. By being

, he also administered oath of office to 8th President of India

Ramaswamy Venkataraman Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009), also known as R. Venkataraman, was an Indian lawyer, independence activist and politician who served as a union minister and as the president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajam ...

Bhopal gas disaster

Pathak facilitated an out of court settlement between

Union Carbide Corporation Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) is an American chemical company headquartered in Seadrift, Texas. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company since 2001. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more f ...

and the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

in 1989 regarding the compensation to be paid for the

Bhopal gas tragedy On 3 December 1984, over 500,000 people in the vicinity of the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate, in what is considered the world's worst ind ...

. The government had sought $3.3 billion but received only $470 million and the settlement resulted in the dropping of

criminal liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agencie ...

charges against Union Carbide in the case. Within three months of his retirement Pathak became a member of the International Court of Justice at

. The Supreme Court in 1991 upheld the settlement in 1991 thus ending Union Carbide's liability in the case.

Judge of the International Court of Justice

Pathak was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice and served in that position from 1989 to 1991. He was elected in "casual election" that was held following the death of M. Nagendra Singh, an Indian judge who was then serving his second term at the International Court. In 1991 India decided not to renominate Pathak, who however entered the fray with the backing of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. After the

Irish government The Government of Ireland () is the executive authority of Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet – is composed of ministers, each of whom must be a member of the , which consists of ...

came under attack in the Dáil from MPs who blamed Pathak for approving, as Chief Justice of India, the $470-million Bhopal gas disaster settlement with

Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) is an American chemical company headquartered in Seadrift, Texas. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company since 2001. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more f ...

, Pathak withdrew from the race.

Oil-for-Food Programme inquiry

In November 2005, Justice Pathak was appointed to inquire into alleged Indian links in the

Oil-for-Food Programme The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) was established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986) to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary I ...

. On 3 August 2006, he submitted his 90-page report which indicted suspended Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh.

Death

Pathak died on 17 November 2007, at the age of 82 following a heart attack in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

.Former CJI R S Pathak passes away
/ref> His death occurred a week before his 83rd birthday.

References

External links

Official Supreme Court of India Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pathak, R. S. Chief justices of India 1924 births 2007 deaths International Court of Justice judges Chief justices of the Himachal Pradesh High Court 20th-century Indian judges Judges of the Allahabad High Court 20th-century Indian lawyers Indian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals