Mirza Hameedullah Beg (English: Mirza Hameedullah Beg, born- 22 February, 1913; died- 19 November, 1988) was the former 15th Chief Justice of India. He was the Chief Justice of India from January 28, 1977 to February 21, 1978. Mirza Hamidullah Beg was the second Muslim Chief Justice in India after Mohammad Hidayatullah.
Born in a Muslim family, Mirza Hamidullah Beg’s father Mirza Samiullah Beg was the Chief Justice of Hyderabad State. Mirza Hamidullah Baig joined St. George’s Grammar School, from where he stood first in the Senior Cambridge HSLC examination and earned a gold medal. Since India was still under heavy British influence, it was common for wealthy Indians to pursue higher education in England. Especially for law studies. Mirza Hamidullah Beg also entered the famous Trinity College and the University of Cambridge in 1931 and earned honors in Archeology and Anthropology and the Historical Tripos. He studied law, economics and politics at the London School of Economics.
After graduation, Mirza Hamidullah Baig returned to India and started practicing as a lawyer in Allahabad High Court. It was from here that he started gaining experience working in the judicial system. In 1949, he enrolled as an advocate of the Federal Court of India and eventually became an advocate of the Supreme Court of India. After extensive practice, he became standing counsel for the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and frequently appeared for municipal bodies.
After gaining wide experience as an advocate, Mirza Hamidullah Beg was brought to the bench of Allahabad High Court on 11 June 1963. As a judge he sat on both criminal and civil sides as well as on the tax bench. Later, he was made a judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in January 1971. He was the first Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court. After a short tenure as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Mirza Hamidullah Beg was elevated as Justice of the Supreme Court of India on December 12, 1971. He was also a judge in the ‘Habeas Corpus’ case. This landmark case in Indian democracy, Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur versus Shivkant Shukla, occurred during the Emergency in 1975.
A few months later, in January 1977, Mirza Hamidullah Beg, who was H.R. Khanna, was appointed Chief Justice of India by the Indira Gandhi government. This was against legal tradition, although it was initiated by A. N. Rai was appointed. This obstruction of the independence of the judiciary was widely protested. Mirza Hamidullah Beg was the second Muslim Chief Justice in India after Mohammad Hidayatullah. After a tenure of one year, he retired in February 1978. After this Mirza Hamidullah Baig served as the Chairman of the Minorities Commission of India.
