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Justice Navin Sinha superannuated today leaving the strength of the Supreme Court to 24, against the sanctioned strength of 34.

Chief Justice NV Ramana, while sharing ceremonial bench with Justice Navin Sinha, today morning said,

“Brother Sinha’s knowledge and wisdom are writ large in all his judgments. However, the qualities I most admire in him are his humility and simplicity. He never makes anyone feel less or unworthy. He was always well prepared for Court and knew the contents of every file. Yet, he still gave people a patient hearing, be they juniors or seniors. For young advocates, I am sure arguing before Brother Sinha must have been a wonderful experience.”

Justice Sinha did his schooling at St Xavier's High School, Patna followed by graduation from Delhi University.

He got enrolled as an Advocate on July 26, 1979 and practiced in the Patna High Court for 23 years.

He was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Patna High Court on February 11, 2004 followed by Chief Justice of two different High Courts – Chattisgarh and Rajasthan High Court(s).

On February 17, 2017, Justice Sinha was elevated as a Supreme Court Judge, spending a total tenure of 4 years 6 months at the Top Court.

SCBA Function organized in the Honour of Justice Navin Sinha

SCBA Vice President, Pradeep Rai, while covering significant judgments authored by Justice Sinha, said, “Lordship's time management, smile, and his work will all be dearly missed”

Ld. SGI Tushar Mehta, bidding farewell to the superannuating Judge, said, “Justice Sinha has transformed the way the public and lawyers look at the Supreme Court. Not just the number of judgments, but quality of his judgments has also touched human lives. He has had a very empathetic approach to judicial functions.”

SCBA President, Vikas Singh, revisiting contribution of Justice Sinha to the Judicial Institution, added, “His effort in first learning computerization and contributing in computerization of Patna High Court, Rajasthan High Court and Chhattisgarh High Court even before the pandemic has been commendable, especially as we are all from a non-computer generation. The diversity of subjects dealt by Justice Sinha in his judgments is beautiful! Normally, judges specialize in particular subjects only. Even when not so conversant with a particular subject, he would read up and give beautiful judgments.”

CJI NV Ramana, calling Justice Sinha, a man of “impeccable integrity” said, “Doing the right thing is not the problem, knowing what the right thing, is – We judges are often caught between morality and legality. Brother Sinha carried this burden remarkably.”

Justice Navin Sinha, in his address recalled his formative years at the Bar and the Bench, with sharing an interesting incident,

This is from the days when I was in Mr. Datar's chamber. Mr. Datar was arguing, and everything was going over my head. The temptation to sleep overcame me and I slept. At 4 PM Mr. Datar woke me up, embarrassed I asked, "Why didn't you wake me up?" Mr. Datar told me, The judge saw you sleep. He said, "Let him sleep. Later on, he won't get time to."

He added that a lawyer must know how to conduct himself, how to appear before the bench, what body language to adopt – “A good lawyer creates a halo around himself with his conduct, income alone cannot be the index of his success,” said Justice Sinha in his closing remark.