HC gets 4 new judges; women judges a record 14

HC gets 4 new judges; women judges a record 14

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:05.09.2021

The Madras high court is set to get four new judges, taking the sitting strength to 60 against the sanctioned strength of 75. With the induction of S Srimathi, the number of women judges in the court will go up to a record 14, highest in the country.

D Bharatha Chakravarthy, R Vijayakumar and Mohammed Shaffiq are the other three advocates recommended for elevation by the Supreme Court collegium.

Born on December 22, 1970, Vijayakumar was enrolled as an advocate on October 13, 1993. In 28 years of practising law, Vijayakumar specialised in civil, criminal, constitutional and service laws. He is a second-generation judge. His father Justice A Ramamurthy had been elevated to the high court from the subordinate judiciary in the state. Though he initially practised before the principal bench of the high court in Chennai, since August 2004, he shifted his practice to the Madurai bench of the court.

Bharatha Chakravarthy, enrolled as an advocate on July 15, 1993. He specialised in the original, appellate and criminal sides of the high court. In his 27 years of practice, he had also served as a public prosecutor for the Union territory of Puducherry for the high court.

This apart, he represented public sector undertakings such as the Puducherry Slum Clearance Board, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Sciences, Puducherry, and Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Limited. He is also an accredited mediator and trainer empanelled with the Mediation & Conciliation Project Committee, Supreme Court of India.

Mohammed Shaffiq is a taxation law specialist who had served as government pleader for taxes.

Srimathi is also a Trichy Government Law College product, and enrolled as advocate in October 1989.

(Clockwise from top left): S Srimathi, R Vijayakumar, D Bharatha Chakravarthy