Fare thee well, Vazifdar

Lawyers thronged the court complex, cheering and showering rose petals as retiring Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) Shiavax Vazifdar was escorted to his official car, while judges of the Court "gave the customary gentle nudge to the vehicle as a farewell gesture,” reported The Tribune (TT) of May 4, 2018. The report noted that "reverberating beats of dhol (Indian drums) filled the air as the employees placed a red turban on Vazifdar’s head as he walked with folded hands amidst the jostling crowd to receive the guard of honor.” Commending the judge for bringing justice "closer to the people,” TT noted that "his grace and graciousness earned him great respect and soon made him popular, both among the bar and the bench.”

Vazifdar had earlier displayed goodwill by proceeding on leave to pave the way for PHHC’s senior-most judge Justice Surinder Singh Saron to be appointed as Acting Chief Justice just days before Saron’s retirement on September 4, 2017. Previously on August 15, Vazifdar extended a similar courtesy towards Saron: he stepped aside to offer Saron the privilege to unfurl the national flag at a ceremony in Chandigarh on Independence Day. "It was a rare moment when the national flag was unfurled by the senior-most judge of the High Court in the presence of the Chief Justice,” the Deccan Herald of August 22 had noted (see "A gracious Chief Justice,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7, 2017).
The report of TT noted a few of Vazifdar’s achievements as Chief Justice: exclusive courts set up to deal with heinous crimes against women; a special commercial court established in Gurgaon; "annual action plans formulated, and guidelines issued for the subordinate judiciary for disposal of long-pending cases.”
Vazifdar enrolled as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in 1980 and practiced civil, constitutional, company and arbitration cases in the Bombay High Court (BHC). Sworn in as a judge of the BHC in 2001, in 2016, he was appointed Chief Justice of the PHHC. Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal has been appointed as the Acting Chief Justice.