The Supreme Court collegium on Wednesday cleared the names of 10 judicial officers to be elevated as judges of the Madras High Court but what made the news sweeter for the legal fraternity in the State is that two among the 10 officers are a married couple.
Tiruchi Principal District and Sessions Judge Murali Shankar Kuppuraju and the Registrar (Judicial) of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Thamilselvi T. Valayapalayam had tied the knot in 1996 and are now the proud parents of two college going children. Once the collegium recommendation passes through the Union Ministry of Law and Justice as well as the Prime Minister’s Office and culminates into issuance of a warrant by the President, the couple would be sworn in judges of the Madras High Court.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Kuppuraju, hailing from Coimbatore, said he had obtained his degree in law from the government law college in his native in 1990 and joined Tamil Nadu State Judicial Service in the entry level as a District Munsif-cum-Judicial Magistrate in 1995.
Ms. Valayapalayam, hailing from Perundurai in Erode district, had completed her law in Puducherry and joined judicial service in the same post along with him in 1995. They fell in love and tied the knot in 1996. Since then, they have sailed together both professionally and personally.
The couple got promoted to the cadres of sub judge, district judge and then principal district judge at the same time though they ended up being posted in different stations. Their elder daughter too had completed law recently from Sastra University in Thanjavur.
Apart from the couple, the other eight names that had been cleared for elevation were Kannammal Shanmugasundaram, Sathikumar Sukumara Kurup, Manjula Ramaraju Nalliah, G. Chandrasekharan, A.A. Nakkiran, Sivagnanam Veerasamy, Ilangovan Ganesan and Ananthi Subramanian.
