India had three Acting Presidents – V.V. Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and B.D. Jatti. Among them V.V. Giri later became the 4th President of India.
Mohammad Hidayatullah was the Chief Justice of India. He was the only person to serve twice as Acting President. He served as the Acting President of India from 20th July 1969 to 24th August 1969 and from 6th October 1982 to 31st October 1982.
In December 1958, he acquired the position of Justice at the Supreme Court of India. He was the youngest person to be a judge in the Supreme Court. He served in this position for almost ten years, and on 25th February 1968, he took oath as the Chief Justice of India and remained on the seat till 16th December 1970. He served as the Vice President of India from August 1979 to August 1984.
Mohammad Hidayatullah was born on 17th December 1905. He belonged to an upper class family. His father Khan Bahadur Hafiz Mohammed Wilayatullah was an Urdu poet.
Mohammad Hidayatullah completed his primary education at the Government High School of Rajpur. He attended Morris College in Nagpur. He attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He was called to the Bar from Lincoln’s Inn when he was just 25 years old. He was awarded an LL.D. from University of the Philippines and a D. Litt. from the University of Bhopal. After graduation, Hidayatullah returned to India and enrolled as an advocate of the High Court of Central Provinces and Berar at Nagpur on 19th July 1930. He also taught Jurisprudence and Mahomedan Law in the University College of Law at Nagpur. He was appointed Government Pleader in the High Cour tat Nagpur. On 1st December 1958, he was elevated as a justice to the Supreme Court of India. In his time, he was the youngest judge of the Supreme Court of India. Later, Hidayatullah became the chief Justice of the India on 25th February, 1968.
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