NEW DELHI, CHENNAI : The Union Ministry of Law and Justice on Thursday notified the name of former Principal Sessions Judge at Chennai’s City Civil Court N Authinathan as additional judge of the Madras High Court. Authinathan had retired on January 19 this year. He is likely to be sworn in as High Court judge on Tuesday. A notification to this effect, issued by the Law Ministry, was received by the High Court in the evening. Authinathan will have little over one year of service as High Court judge. A native of Thoothukudi district, Authinathan became judicial magistrate in subordinate judicial service in 1988. He was promoted as district judge in 2000.
Authinathan’s name had been pending before the Supreme Court collegium and the Centre for elevation, along with eight other names since 2015. Six of them, justices V Bharathidasan, D Krishnakumar, S S Sundar, M V Muralidharan, P Kalaiyarasan and B Gokuldas, were appointed as judges early this year. The collegium reconsidered its decision and processed Authinathan’s name in April and forwarded it to the Prime Minister’s Officer for appointment. With his arrival, the sitting strength of the Madras High Court will go up to 39, as against the sanctioned strength of 75.