Lawyers practising in the Madras High Court bid a fitting farewell to its former Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani on Friday by describing her as a “warrior Chief Justice” who had taken a “bold and correct” decision by tendering her resignation on September 6, following the Supreme Court collegium’s “indefensible” decision to transfer her to the High Court of Meghalaya consisting of three judges.
Madras Bar Association president A.R.L. Sundaresan said she had disposed of a total of 5,040 cases, including 2,460 main cases and 2,556 miscellanous petitions, in the last one year. He also said she heard 302 criminal appeals in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and disposed of 25 of them.
‘Patient hearing’
“After a long time, we had a Chief Justice who was hearing criminal appeals too. Counsels were given patient hearing and orders were passed then and there. While things were smooth as they could be, we learnt to our shock that My Lord is to be transferred to the High Court of Meghalaya and My Lord for personal reasons stepped down from the Constitutional office on September 6. We the members of MBA are sad that your lordship’s association with this HC has come to an end,” he said.
He also said Justice Tahilramani had decided not to take up any post retirement assignments and therefore, she had written to the government of Tamil Nadu recently, expressing her unwillingness to accept any such post. A similar letter was written to the Government of Maharashtra too before she got elevated from the Bombay High Court as Chief Justice of Madras High Court in August 2018, he added.
In her address, Justice Tahilramani said she was able to dispose of over 5,000 cases, which she thought was a reasonable number due to the cooperation of her companion judge Justice M. Duraiswamy and the Bar. “Because the members of the Bar kept their arguments very brief, I could finish my cause list which was on an average of about 75 to 80 cases very quickly and I could rise from the court quickly,” she said and thanked the lawyers.
Stating that she had developed an attachment with Chennai in the last one year, she said: “I have got attached to the city for various reasons. One is that this place has better climate than Mumbai with no torrential rains and flooding. Not only that, less pollution, more greenery and better infrastructure is available not only in the city of Chennai but all over the State. There are excellent roads and excellent infrastructure.”
“Therefore, my husband and I were thinking of settling down in Chennai. And we proceeded and took steps in that direction and we purchased a flat in Chennai. A flat because we Mumbaikars are used to flats. We cannot think of purchasing a plot of land and then building a house. But fate had different things in store. Now we’ll give it a thought, take a month or two, and then decide as to what we are going to do,” she added.
Later, in a separate farewell accorded by the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA), senior counsel N.G.R. Prasad described her as a warrior Chief Justice and said the fact of her having been a woman made her decision to resign all the more significant. “She would have got a big farewell had she retired a year later on attaining the age of superannuation but now she is getting a much bigger farewell,” he said amidst thunderous applause.
