Hon’ble Justice Mr. Rohinton Fali Nariman, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India has been conferred the Emeritus Fellowship in recognition of his colossal contribution to the development of insolvency jurisprudence in early years of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

Justice Nariman was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on July 7, 2014. The beginning of his journey as a judge almost coincided with conceiving of the Code as a near term legislation when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting the Budget 2014-15 on July 10, 2014, informed the Parliament that a modern insolvency law is in the offing. In hindsight, this providential connection was a sign of things to come.

Justice Nariman began hearing the matters arising from the Code, including Constitutional challenge to the provisions of the Code in its teething years. He plugged the gaps in the Code by adopting creative and harmonious interpretations to further the cause of the Code. He drew from his vast experience as an expert in commercial laws to understand the practical commercial difficulties and issues involved in the insolvency process while deciding complex cases. When necessary, he clarified aspects of his own decisions. It was as early as in 2018 that Justice Nariman, through his rulings observed that strict adherence of timelines is of the essence to both the triggering process and the insolvency resolution process. He exhorted the stakeholders to keep in mind this principal objective sought to be achieved by the Code and to strictly adhere to the time frame. At the time of his retirement from the Bench in 2021, of the 164 Supreme Court judgments on IBC, 81 were authored by him.

Justice Rohinton was born on October 13, 1956, to an eminent Indian jurist Fali S. Nariman whose life is in itself an extraordinary example of excellence. After graduating from Shri Ram College of Commerce, he graduated in law from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. He joined Harvard for an LL.M degree in 1980-81.

His professional trajectory has been path-breaking. His career was diverse, spanning from his law practice in Bombay to his brief stint in New York at a maritime law firm, and later his flourishing practice in Delhi. In 1993, he was designated as a Senior Advocate at the age of 37. He was appointed Solicitor General of India in 2011. He became only the fifth lawyer in the nation’s history to be directly appointed as judge of the Supreme Court in 2014.

Justice Rohinton Nariman has delivered judgments that generations of lawyers and judges will engage and grapple with for decades into the future. His judgments on the subject are filled with copious references to regulations, provisions, statutory forms, reports, foreign jurisprudence and case laws from the earlier insolvency regime. These judgments provide the base for students of law and professionals interested in commercial insolvency laws in India. They also provide an invaluable base for current and future judges to borrow from Justice Nariman’s wisdom. He has left an indelible mark on the jurisprudence around the Code. He may have retired from the Supreme Court, but his legacy on the bench will continue to steer and contribute towards the development of IBC jurisprudence.

Being an ordained priest, he authored, The Inner Fire: Faith, Choice, and Modern-Day Living in Zoroastrianisma on the Zoroastrian religion.

After his retirement, Justice Rohinton started a YouTube channel called the ‘Justice Nariman Official Channel’. The channel showcases his lectures and conversations on law, history, religion, music and spirituality.

He has been invited to speak at the prestigious Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2023 at Chicago, USA.