Sam Piroj Bharucha

{{short description|30th Chief Justice of India}}

{{Use Indian English|date=September 2013}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Sam Piroj Bharucha

| image = File: Justice S.P. Bharucha.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption =

| order = 30th

| office = Chief Justice of India

| termstart = 1 November 2001

| termend = 5 May 2002

| nominator =

| appointer = K. R. Narayanan

| predecessor = Adarsh Sein Anand

| successor = Bhupinder Nath Kirpal

| office1 = Judge of Supreme Court of India

| termstart1 = 1 July 1992

| termend1 = 31 October 2001

| nominator1 = Madhukar Hiralal Kania

| appointer1 = K. R. Narayanan

| office2 = 13th Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court{{cite web|url=http://jkhighcourt.nic.in/former.html|title=Former Chief Justices & Judges|publisher=Jammu and Kashmir High Court|accessdate=24 January 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100303002341/http://jkhighcourt.nic.in/former.html|archivedate=3 March 2010|url-status=dead}}

| termstart2 = 1 November 1991

| termend2 = 30 June 1992

| nominator2 = Ranganath Misra

| appointer2 = Ramaswamy Venkataraman

| predecessor2 = Shanmughasundaram Mohan

| successor2 = S. B. Majumdar

| office3 = Judge of Bombay High Court

| termstart3 = 19 September 1977

| termend3 = 31 October 1991

| nominator3 = Mirza Hameedullah Beg

| appointer3 = Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1937|05|6}}

| birth_place = Gangtok, Sikkim, British India

| death_date =

| death_place =

| spouse =

}}

File:The_President_of_India,_K._R._Narayanan_administering_the_oath_of_office_of_the_Chief_Justice_of_India_to_Sam_Piroj_Bharucha_at_the_Ashok_Hall_of_the_Rashtrapati_Bhavan.jpg

Sam Piroj Bharucha (6 May 1937) is the former Chief Justice of India, serving from November 2001 until his retirement in 2002.{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/revents/01/20010111.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020414124852/http://www.hinduonnet.com/revents/01/20010111.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=14 April 2002|title=National Events in November 2001|date=1 November 2001|work=The Hindu|accessdate=25 February 2010}}

He began his legal career as an advocate of the Bombay High Court in 1960, and was appointed an Additional Judge in 1977. His judgeship was made permanent in 1978, and in 1991 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. In 1992, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of India, and became Chief Justice in 2001.{{cite web|url=http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/libweb/judges/Bharucha%20S.P..html|title=Honourable Mr. Justice Sam Piroj Bharucha |work=Bombay High Court|accessdate=25 February 2010}}

Bharucha is responsible for many significant legal decisions. He was part of the five judge constitutional panel which unanimously ruled on the 2001 dismissal of J. Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. It was the first and only such dismissal of a chief minister in India's history.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fline/fl1822/18220840.htm|title= A new Chief Justice|last=VENKATESAN|first=V. |date=27 October 2001|work=Frontline|accessdate=25 February 2010}}

Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Bharucha authored 344 judgments and a sat on 1,307 benches.{{Cite web |title=S.P. Bharucha |url=https://www.scobserver.in/judges/s-p-bharucha/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=Supreme Court Observer |language=en-US}}