The Madras High Court on Monday became the only High Court in the country to have as many as 12 women judges following the swearing in of seven lawyers, including a woman, as judges of the High Court. The elevations had raised the working strength of the court to 63 judges against its sanctioned strength of 75.
Welcoming the new judges immediately after Chief Justice Indira Banerjee administered oath of office to them, Advocate General Vijay Narayan said Justice P.T. Asha was born at Coonoor on August 22, 1966 and her father Achuthan Nair was a former Army officer. She had completed law from Madras Law College in 1998.
She then joined the office of Justice V. Ramasubramanian, a senior judge of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, when he was practising as a lawyer. She was part of a court appointed commission to study the working of the Anna Centenary Library here.
The AG pointed out that Justice M. Nirmal Kumar was born on November 23, 1965 and his father V. Murugesan served as an Additional Registrar of Cooperative Societies. After enrolling with the Bar Council in 1989 and practising law for a few years, he cleared the Staff Selection Commission examination and joined the Central Excise Department as Inspector in 1994.
However, he resigned in 1996. In the same year, he took the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission examination and was appointed as Assistant Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Ddepartment. He resigned this post too in 1997 and returned to the legal profession.
Justice Subramonium Prasad completed law in 1990 and joined the office of T.S. Krishnamurthy Iyer, a retired judge of the Kerala High Court and leading counsel in the Supreme Court. He was appointed as Standing Counsel for the State of Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court in 2003 and held the post till 2006.
He was appointed special counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation in the fake encounter cases in Gujarat. In October 2012, he was appointed Additional Advocate General for the State of Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court and continued to hold the post till his elevation as a judge of the Madras High Court.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh had completed his schooling and higher studies in Chennai and enrolled with the Bar Council in 1993. He was a first generation lawyer who did not restrict his practice to any particular branch of law. He was a resource person in Tamil Nadu Judicial Academy where he was regularly addressing judges from subordinate courts.
Justice G.K. Ilanthirayan was born in Mettur taluk of Salem district in 1970 and his father, a veterinarian, retired as Director of Animal Husbandry Department. He enrolled as an advocate in 1994 and was predominantly dealing with criminal and writ matters. He was also a trained mediator who had mediated more than 150 cases.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy was born in a modest agricultural family at Kallakurichi in 1968 and enrolled as an advocate in 1994. He completed company secretaryship in 2001 after joining the office of senior counsel Arvind P. Dattar in 1996 and dealing with cases related to company law, customs, central excise, income tax, etc.
Justice C. Saravanan was a graduate from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and only the third from the university to be sworn in judge of a High Court. His father was an officer in the Indian Ordnance Factory and, therefore, he had the advantage of schooling in various parts of the country.
