Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia had a busy day in court on Friday, not unusual, but it ended up making a number of headlines. The chief justice, who has a reputation for expertise on commercial and tax law, headed a panel which gave capital gains tax relief to the world’s biggest mobile phone company, Vodafone, in its acquisition of Huthison Whampoa’s India operations in a verdict eagerly awaited by foreign investors.
He also gave Sahara three weeks and two options to secure the public’s investments in the optionally fully convertible debentures scheme of its group companies. Besides, a bench headed by him threw out a petition asking the government to reduce the on-record age of the army chief in what is turning out to be a bitter legal battle. The busy chief justice has especially targeted corruption during his tenure. India needs “clean men in black robes” to help end corruption, Justice Kapadia told the Indian Bar Association in an April speech. The 31-judge Supreme Court he’s led since May 2010 has already risen to his challenge -- ousting the head of India’s anti-graft watchdog, forcing the government to hand out food to the poor, and overseeing probes leading to the jailing of a billionaire executive and a former telecommunications minister.
Justice Kapadia lists clarity among his ruling principles. “Judges should focus on structure of judgments and clarity of thought. In the judgments, we do not want high sounding phrases that don’t make sense,” he said earlier.
He was made counsel for the income tax department in 1974, at 27. He represented Bombay Municipal Corporation in matters concerning rateable value and octroi, besides the Maharashtra government and several public sector undertakings.
As a judge of the Bombay High Court, he ruled on matters ranging from environment to banking, mergers and acquisitions, industrial disputes, and tax.