Srinivas Varadachariar

Sir Srinivas Varadachariar (20 June 18816 September 1970) was an Indian jurist who was the first Indian chief justice of the Federal Court of India when he served as the acting chief justice of the court between 25 April 1943 and 7 June 1943. He was also a judge of the Madras High Court and of the Federal Court of India. Varadachariar headed the ad-hoc committee of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the provisions to set up the Supreme Court of India.

Biography

Varadachariar was born on 20 June 1881 into a family of Iyengar priests, with limited financial means. His father was the priest to the house of lawyer and jurist Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar, the first Indian Advocate-General of Madras. He was appointed by the then Governor-General of India, Victor Hope. Varadachariar succeeded M. R. Jayakar who stepped down as a judge when he was appointed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. At the time, the Federal Court of India had three judges, a British judge, and two Indian judges with one Hindu and one Muslim judge. Varadachariar served as the acting chief justice of the Federal Court of India between 25 April 1943 and 7 June 1943, when the first chief justice of the court Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer stepped down. In serving as the acting chief justice, he was the first Indian chief justice of the Federal Court of India. Amongst the significant cases presided by Varadachariar as the Chief Justice included King Emperor v Beonarilal Sharma, a case that is noted to have cost him his position as the permanent chief justice of the court. Despite being the senior most judge in the court, he was succeeded by British judge William Patrick Spens. As a judge, Varadachariar retired from the Federal Court of India in 1946 after serving for seven years. He was also the chairman of the Income Tax Investigation Commission set up under the Taxation of Income Act. Varadachariar headed the ad-hoc committee of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the provisions to set up the Supreme Court of India.

He later served as the president of the board of the Lady Sivaswami Iyer Girls' School in Madras. In addition to legal learnings, Varadachariar was a scholar of Sanskrit.

Published works