Chennai: The year 2013 was a landmark year for the Tamil Nadu judiciary as Justice P. Sathasivam, a son of the soil, became the Chief Justice of India on July 20.
Justice Sathasivam, 64, is the first judge from Tamil Nadu to become the CJI. Justice M. PataÂnjali Sastri, who served as CJI from November 1951 to January 1954, represented the undivided Madras Presidency.
Hailing from Kadappanallur village, Bhavani Taluk in Erode district, Justice Sathasivam, who belonged to an agricultural family, was the first graduate in his family and the first law graduate in his village. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Madras High Court on January 8, 1996.
This year saw more retirements than appointments. The total sanctioned strength of judges in the Madras High Court is 60. As many as 10 judges retired this year, but only eight were appointed. The present strength is only 47 and there are 13 vacancies now. But lakhs of cases were pending both in the principal seat and Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.
For the first time, internal committees to deal with issues relating to sexual harassment at the workplace were constituted in the Madras High Court and subordinate courts in the state this year.
Following a direction from the Supreme Court to all the high courts in the country to formulate their own regulations to deal with sexual harassment issues, Chief Justice R. K. Agrawal had, on November 27, framed the Gender Sensitisation and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Madras high court — Principal seat at Chennai and Madurai Bench at Madurai (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013.
Justice Chitra Venkataraman heads the High Court Gender Sesitisation and Internal Complaints Committee at Chennai, which consists of 10 members. Similarly, the Principal district judges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were directed to constitute the Subordinate Courts Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee in their respective districts immediately.
To bring down the large number of pendency of cases and to provide quick relief to litigants, a nationwide mega Lok Adalat was conducted on November 23. Tamil Nadu disposed of the highest number cases. More than 13 lakh cases were disposed of for an amount of Rs 1,041 crore in a single day. A 38-year-old road accident woman victim, who is now bedridden, was given Rs 75 lakh as compensation in the Lok Adalat.
To end the menace of conducting fake courts, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, on October 17, suspended five lawyers from practice for allegedly conducting fake courts in Coimbatore and even passing orders on petitions that litigants brought before them.
