Bench to function with 15 judges

Strength increased to coincide with deputation of new batch of judges

For the first time since the inception of the Madras High Court Bench in Madurai in July 2004, the court would start functioning with a complement of 15 judges from Monday as promised by the Chief Justice, M. Yusuf Eqbal, to protesting lawyers in Madurai last month.

The strength has been increased to coincide with the deputation of a new batch of judges who would preside over the court proceedings here for the next three months from Monday.

Tenure ends

The three-month tenure of the earlier batch had come to an end on Friday.

The judges in the new batch include: Justices P.P.S. Janarthana Raja and M. Duraiswamy (civil Division Bench), Justices K. Suguna and R. Mala (criminal Division Bench), Justice R. Sudhakar (admission of general writ petitions) and Justice Vinod K. Sharma (admission of writ petitions related to service matters).

While Justice S. Manikumar would take up old writ petitions for final hearing; Justice A. Selvam, the only judge to continue in the High Court Bench for a very long time without shuttling between Chennai and Madurai, would hear criminal appeals to be posted before a single judge.

Justice S. Palanivelu has been given the portfolio of hearing civil revision petitions, Justice C.S. Karnan-civil appeals, Justice N. Kirubakaran- directions under criminal law, Justice M.M. Sundresh- writ petitions (adjourned admissions), Justice T. Mathivanan- bail, Justice R. Karuppiah- second appeals and Justice M. Vijayaraghavan- appeal suits.

The Bench building was originally built with just 12 court halls.

Later, four halls in the administrative building were converted as court halls.

Now all these halls, except court hall number one reserved for the Chief Justice, and the chambers attached to them would be occupied by the judges.