AK Ganguly set to become SC judge

hennai: The Madras high court seems to have become a favourite stepping stone for senior judges on their way to the Supreme Court. Including the chief justice A K Ganguly, who is to be sworn in judge of the Supreme Court in a couple of days, the 26-judge apex court will have five judges who have had a stint in the Madras high court. The apex court already has chief justice K G Balakrishnan, justice Markandey Katju, both of whom were chief justices of the Madras high court in the past, and justice Sirpurkar, who was number two here for many years. Justice P Sathasivam, whose parent court is the Madras high court, was appointed judge of the Supreme Court in August 2007, and is scheduled to become chief justice of India in 2013. Justice Ganguly will join the other four in the next few days. Justice Balakrishnan became chief justice of the Madras high court on September 9, 1999, while justice Markandey Katju was chief justice for about 10 months from November 2004. Justice Sirpurkar was a judge of this high court for about seven years, between 1997 and 2004. Justice Ganguly, who was first appointed permanent judge of the Calcutta high court in January 1994, became chief justice of the Madras high court on May 19, 2008. Justice Ganguly was given a farewell dinner by his colleague-judges at the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy on Wednesday. Another official farewell is slated to be held on Friday. During his seven-month tenure, Justice Ganguly, who shared the first bench mostly with Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla or Justice K Chandru, had made sincere attempts to revamp the entire legal education system in the state. While dealing with public interest writ petitions on the November 12 clash at the Dr Ambedkar Government Law College, his first bench banned all forms of caste and political propaganda in the vicinity of law colleges in Tamil Nadu. He also saved the Gokhale Hall from the sledgehammer, and formed an expert committee to visit the premises and suggest means to restore the heritage structure. Justice Ganguly’s bench will also be remembered for banning stone quarrying and unauthorised constructions in hill stations including Ooty.

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