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| 3rd Governor of Odisha | |
|---|---|
| In office 7 June 1952 – 9 February 1954 | |
| Preceded by | Asaf Ali |
| Succeeded by | P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja |
| Judge of theSupreme Court of India | |
| In office 26 January 1950 – 18 September 1951 | |
| Appointed by | President |
| Chief Justice ofPatna High Court | |
| In office 19 January 1943 – 14 October 1946 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 September 1886 |
| Died | 22 August 1959(1959-08-22) (aged 72) |
| Parent | Saiyid Nazir Ali(father) Kubra Begum(mother) |
Sir Saiyid Fazl Ali,OBE (19 September 1886 – 22 August 1959) was an Indian judge,[1] the governor of two Indian states (Assam andOdisha), and the head of theStates Reorganisation Commission which determined the boundaries of several Indian states in December 1953.
Their commission submitted the report in September 1953 broadly accepting the language as the basis of reorganisation of states.
Fazl belonged to an aristocraticSyedZamindar family ofBihar state. He studied law and began practicing. Eventually he was raised to the judiciary. Sir Fazl Ali was successively given the title ofKhan Sahib first and ofKhan Bahadur later. In 1918, he was made an Officer of theOrder of the British Empire (OBE). He was knighted in the1941 New Year Honours list and invested with his knighthood on 1 May 1942 by theViceroy,Lord Linlithgow.[2][3][4]
India became independent in 1947 as theDominion of India. Under the new dispensation of the Republic ofIndia, Sir Fazl Ali wasGovernor of Odisha from 1952 to 1954, andGovernor of Assam from 1956 to 1959. He died while serving as Governor of Assam. Whilst in Assam, he made strenuous efforts to bring the disgruntledNaga tribals into the mainstream of society.[citation needed] He opened the first college in the Naga heartland inMokokchung, which is today known as 'Fazl Ali College' in his honour. The College celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010.[citation needed]
Over the course of his tenure on the Supreme Court, Fazl Ali authored 56 judgments and was a part of 113 benches.[5] Notably, he dissented in two early free speech cases before the Supreme Court,Romesh Thapar v. State of Madras (1950) andBrij Bhushan v. State of Delhi (1950).[6]
Fazl Ali headed theStates Reorganisation Commission that made recommendations about the reorganization of India's states. For his services to India, he was bestowed with the country's second-highest civilian honour, thePadma Vibhushan, by the government of India in 1956.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Governor of Assam 1956–1959 | Succeeded by |
