Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal

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Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal (born on January 14, 1942) was the 36th Chief Justice of India.

He was sworn in as the Chief Justice by the President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam on November 1, 2005 for a period of about 14 months ending on January 14, 2007.

1 Career
2 Significant Judgements
3 Views on capital punishment
4 External links

[edit] Career

Sabharwal worked as an advocate for Indian Railways from 1969 to 1981, as an advocate for Delhi administration from 1973 to 1976-1977, later as Additional Standing Counsel and then as Standing Counsel. He also served as Counsel to the Central Government from 1980 to 1986. He represented Delhi in the Bar Council of India from 1969 to 1973.

He became an Additional Judge in the Delhi High Court on November 17, 1986 and a judge soon after.

On February 3, 1999, he was appointed as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. In less than a year, he was appointed as a judge, Supreme Court of India.

[edit] Significant Judgements

As a judge of the Supreme Court, he delivered several important judgements dealing with constitutional matters. A constitutional bench headed by Justice Sabharwal in October 2005 held as unconstitutional the dissolution of Bihar assembly on the basis of the report of Governor Buta Singh but refused to revert the action, thereby paving way for fresh elections.
In 2006, he headed a bench which refused to grant any relief to the sealing in Delhi.
In 2007, he headed a nine judge constitutional bench which judged that all laws placed under the ninth schedule after April 24, 1973, shall be open to be challenged in court if they violate the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 19, 20 and 21 of the Constitution. This judgment was made in response to a bunch of petitions made on various laws including the Tamil Nadu Reservation Act, 1994.