Last rites of former CJI S.H. Kapadia performed

The last rites of top legal luminary and former Supreme Court chief justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia, who died late on Monday following a cardiac arrest, were performed on Tuesday, a family member said.

Kapadia was 68 and is survived by his wife Shernaaz, a Chartered Accountant son Hoshnar, and a daughter Tenaaz who works with a private company.

His funeral was performed as per Parsi traditions at the Doongerwadi Tower of Silence in south Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

A large number of former and sitting judges, high court staffers, lawyers and others attended the funeral.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed "pain" and condoled the demise of Kapadia.

"A fine legal mind who enriched our judiciary, former CJI S.H. Kapadia's contribution will always be remembered," Modi said in a Tweet.

Kapadia, who rose from the ranks to become the 38th Chief Justice of India, served from May 12, 2010, till his retirement on September 29, 2012. He was earlier the chief justice of the Uttarakhand High Court.

A graduate of Mumbai's Government Law College, Kapadia had humble beginnings as a Class IV employee and then as a clerk with Gagrat & Company, a prominent law firm and enrolled as a lawyer only in 1974.

After a successful legal career, he was elevated to the Bombay High Court in October 1991 and later to the Supreme Court in December 2003.

Over the years, he became renowned for his unimpeachable integrity, honesty, forthrightness and no-nonsense approach to issues.

Among his landmark judgments was the quashing of the appointment of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas in 2011.

A true nationalist, while speaking at the Independence Day celebrations in the Supreme Court as the then chief justice, Kapadia had said: "I am proud to be an Indian. India is the only country where a member of the minority Paris community with a population of 167,000, like myself, can aspire to attain the post of the Chief Justice of India. These things do not happen in our neighbouring countries."