President Pranab Mukherjee has given assent to the appointment of seven new judges to the Kerala High Court. Of this, three have been drawn from the Bar while four are District Judges.
Highly informed sources said the appointees were Sunil Thomas, B. Sudheendrakumar, K.P. Jyothindranath, and Mary Joseph, District Judges in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Palakkad, and Alappuzha respectively.
The appointees from the Bar were Shaji P. Chali, Anu Sivaraman, and Raja Vijayaraghavan, all High Court lawyers.
Mr. Thomas was appointed District Judge in 2001 and worked as the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Thrissur, till 2005. He held the same post in Palakkad from 2005 to 2007. He then moved to the Supreme Court as Registrar in 2007.
Mr. Sudheendrakumar had worked as Registrar, Supreme Court.
He was appointed Additional District Judge, Thiruvanathapuram, in 2001. He had served as Special Judge, Vigilance, Kozhikode; Additional District Judge, Kozhikode, and Principal District Judge, Thiruvanathapuram.
Mr. Jyothindranath had worked as Judge, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), Ottappalam. After becoming an Additional District Judge he was posted as CBI Special Judge.
Ms. Joseph enrolled as an advocate in 1986. She was district government pleader and public prosecutor. She was appointed MACT Judge, Kollam, in 2001.
In 2005, she was promoted as First Additional District Judge. She served as MACT Judge in Thodupuzha and Thrissur from 2009 to 2011.
Mr. Chali had practised in various courts in the State. He was the president of the Kerala High Court Advocates’ Association.
Ms. Sivaraman, daughter of the late V. Sivaraman Nair, Kerala High Court Judge, was senior government pleader from 2006 to 2010.
Mr. Raghavan specialised in criminal law, arbitration, rent control, and educational cases.
