Madras High Court to get Chief Justice after eight months

The Madras High Court is all set to get a permanent Chief Justice after more than eight months as President Droupadi Murmu has accepted a recommendation made by Supreme Court collegium to appoint Bombay High Court Acting Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.

The Madras High Court is all set to get a permanent Chief Justice after more than eight months as President Droupadi Murmu has accepted a recommendation made by Supreme Court collegium to appoint Bombay High Court Acting Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.

The Union Ministry of Law and Justice notified the appointment on Friday. The last Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Munishwar Nath Bhandari retired on September 12, 2022. Since then, the senior most judges of the High Court had been serving as Acting Chief Justice due to non-appointment of a permanent CJ.

While Justice M. Duraiswamy served as ACJ for a short period until his retirement on September 21, his successor Justice T. Raja had a very long tenure from September 22 till his retirement on May 24, 2023. Now, Justice S. Vaidyanathan has been serving as the ACJ since May 25 and would continue to do so until Justice Gangapurwala assumes charge.

Born on May 24, 1962, Justice Gangapurwala had stood third in the order of merit in his final year law examination and started practice in 1985. He had joined chambers of advocate S.N. Loya and practiced in trial courts, the Bombay High Court and Debt Recovery Tribunal. He was advocate for many financial institutions such as Central Bank of India, Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank and Jalgaon Janata Sahakari Bank.

He also represented many corporate bodies and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. He was the government counsel before the Justice Mane Commission and had been the counsel representing the Bombay High Court Registry too.

A keen sportsman, he had played lawn tennis at national-level. He represented Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marthwada University six times and captained it twice in all India university tournament. He was also a State-level basketball player. He had served as honourary part-time lecturer in M.P. Law College since 1991 till his elevation as additional judge of the Bombay High Court on March 13, 2010.