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Chief Justices of India from Vidarbha: Hidayatullah, Bobde, Gavai

Chief Justices of India from Vidarbha: Hidayatullah, Bobde, Gavai
Chief Justices of India from Vidarbha: Hidayatullah, Bobde, Gavai

Nagpur’s red-brick courtrooms do not often get the spotlight, but they have produced more than just arguments and appeals.


Over the decades, three individuals from Vidarbha, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, and Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, have occupied India's most powerful judicial office.


Their paths to the Chief Justice’s chair were marked by legal rigour, constitutional challenges, and decisions that shaped Indian law. None came from the traditional centres of legal influence, yet each left a mark far beyond their region.



Mohammad Hidayatullah: Constitutional Clarity and Judicial Restraint

Mohammad Hidayatullah
Mohammad Hidayatullah

Mohammad Hidayatullah was born in 1905 in Betul, in the then Central Provinces and Berar. He received his early education in Raipur and later studied at Morris College in Nagpur.


He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, for higher studies and was called to the Bar from Lincoln’s Inn in 1930.


He returned to Nagpur, balancing legal practice with teaching law. In 1943, he became the Advocate General of the Central Provinces. By 1946, he had joined the Nagpur High Court bench and became its Chief Justice in 1954. In 1958, he was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. A decade later, in 1968, he became the 11th Chief Justice of India.


His tenure on the Supreme Court was defined by a strong defence of constitutional limitations on power.


In the 1967 Golaknath case, he concurred with the opinion that Parliament could not amend fundamental rights. In 1970, as Chief Justice, he delivered the majority judgment in the Privy Purses case, holding the President’s order derecognising former rulers to be unconstitutional.


Earlier, in 1965, he ruled in favour of banning Lady Chatterley’s Lover, laying down legal parameters on obscenity in literature. He was also known for referencing Marxist literature in a contempt case involving Kerala’s then Chief Minister, illustrating his depth of reading.


Outside the court, Hidayatullah was the only person in Indian history to have served as Chief Justice of India, Acting President, and later as Vice President of India.

He was appointed Acting President in 1969 after Zakir Husain’s death. From 1979 to 1984, he served as Vice President. His contributions also extended to academia, serving as Chancellor of multiple universities and presiding over the Indian Law Institute.


There were no personal controversies attached to his tenure. Though his judgments were not always aligned with the government, especially in cases like the Privy Purses dispute, he was widely respected.


The government awarded him honours such as the Order of the British Empire in 1946. Several universities awarded him honorary doctorates, and Raipur’s National Law University bears his name today.


His approach to law, marked by restraint and clarity, defined the early years of India’s constitutional court.


Sharad Arvind Bobde: Technology, Tradition, and a Court in Transition

Sharad Arvind Bobde
Sharad Arvind Bobde

Sharad Arvind Bobde became the 47th Chief Justice of India in November 2019. Born in Nagpur in 1956, he came from a legal family.


His father served twice as Advocate General of Maharashtra. Bobde earned his law degree from Nagpur University and started his practice at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in 1978. He was designated a Senior Advocate in 1998.


In 2000, he was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court. He later became Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2012 and a Supreme Court judge in 2013.

His tenure included several landmark judgments.


He was part of the five-judge bench that delivered the final verdict in the Ayodhya land dispute in 2019. He also contributed to the 2017 judgment that declared privacy a fundamental right.

In a case on electoral conduct, he supported the view that appealing for votes based on religion or caste was a corrupt practice. He sat on benches deciding cases related to Aadhaar, re-promulgation of ordinances, and content regulation.


When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, he led the judiciary’s shift to virtual proceedings. Under his leadership, the court introduced e-filing systems and launched SUPACE, an AI-driven research tool for judges. He also oversaw SUVAS, a translation software designed to make judgments accessible in regional languages.


Another significant administrative decision allowed single-judge benches to hear certain categories of matters, a departure from the earlier practice of always having division benches.



His term was not without criticism. A Supreme Court committee he headed gave a clean chit to outgoing CJI Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment complaint, which drew criticism for a lack of transparency.

In 2020, the court initiated contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan after he criticised the judiciary and Bobde personally. The court eventually found Bhushan guilty but imposed only a symbolic fine.


A remark by Bobde during a rape case hearing, where he asked if the accused would marry the survivor, led to public outrage and protests. Despite clarifications, the damage to public perception remained. His term ended in April 2021 without any new Supreme Court appointments, as the collegium failed to reach a consensus.


Despite the controversies, Bobde is credited with keeping the court functioning through a global health crisis.


He promoted the use of digital tools and handled cases involving government accountability, refugee rights, and political transparency.

By the time he retired, he had authored or co-authored 68 Supreme Court judgments. Though the debates around his courtroom comments persisted, his role in modernising court processes left a lasting impression.



Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai: Scheduled to Lead, Rooted in Vidarbha

Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai
Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai

Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai is set to become the 52nd Chief Justice of India in May 2025. He was born in 1960 in Amravati, Vidarbha. His father, R.S. Gavai, was a Dalit leader associated with the Ambedkarite movement and served as Governor of Bihar and Kerala.


Gavai earned his law degree from Government Law College in Mumbai and began practising at the Nagpur Bench in 1985. He was appointed Assistant Government Pleader and later Government Pleader. In 2003, he was elevated to the Bombay High Court. He served there for 16 years before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 2019.


As a Supreme Court judge, he has ruled in several high-profile cases. He was part of the bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370. He wrote the majority opinion supporting the legality of the 2016 demonetisation move.

He was also among the judges who ruled the Electoral Bonds Scheme unconstitutional, citing concerns about transparency and anonymous political donations. In the area of reservations, he supported internal sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and suggested applying a creamy layer principle to ensure equitable distribution.


He has also ruled on procedural fairness. In 2023, he led a bench that issued pan-India guidelines against demolishing properties without due legal notice, especially in cases involving criminal accusations. His rulings have extended to environmental protection and administrative law.



Lawyers who appear before him describe his court as focused and professional, with occasional lightness in tone but seriousness in content.


He will be the second Dalit Chief Justice of India, after K.G. Balakrishnan. His term is expected to last about six months. Although short, his elevation has been widely viewed as a major milestone for representation in the judiciary.

He has raised concerns about courtroom decorum and may act to introduce stricter norms. He is currently the seniormost judge in the Supreme Court, and the President of India has approved his appointment.


No personal controversies have surfaced in his judicial career so far. His judgments reflect a blend of legal formality and social sensitivity. As he prepares to assume office, the expectations include steady leadership, continued reform, and possibly a push for greater diversity in judicial appointments.


The emergence of three Chief Justices from Vidarbha stands apart in the history of Indian law. These were not isolated achievements. They followed decades of courtroom work, academic engagement, and institutional participation.


They ruled on constitutional limits, religious disputes, privacy, electoral conduct, and economic policy. They worked through eras of political friction, institutional change, and public scrutiny. Vidarbha’s contribution to India’s judiciary, though often under-recognised, is consistent and significant.


The court’s highest seat has, more than once, been occupied by voices that began in cities like Nagpur and Amravati. Each carried the values of their region into a national institution, and each shaped how that institution responded to the law.



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