CHENNAI: His seventy-five years sat lightly on his shoulders and so did judgeship, say friends of Justice K Sampath, who knew the man as well as the Judge.
Justice Sampath, former judge of Madras High Court, died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Jagadambal Colony in Royapettah on Wednesday morning.
He is survived by his wife, Hema, a senior advocate practicing at Madras High Court, and two sons.
The first thing his friends remembered of Sampath was his smile that never dimmed nor grew old, much like his personality.
“He had a take-it-easy air about him,” remembered T N Vallinayagam, former High Court Judge. He also remembers a phrase Justice Sampath often used to calm down advocates caught in the heat of their arguments - “If you bowl well, we can both bat together. But if you bowl badly, you will simply lose the stump.” Well, the balls were the points advocates made.
He retired as Judge of Madras High Court in July 2003. In August 2003, he was one of the three retired judges appointed by the Supreme Court to hear the cases of thousands of government employees, dismissed from service en masse by the then Jayalalithaa government for resorting to a strike for over a month. The three judges sat individually and took up the petitions from thousands of ousted employees. In most of the cases the Judges set aside the dismissal. However, they upheld the dismissal of about 999 employees.
His knowledge of civil law was incredibly extensive, according to K Sivasubramaniam, former Judge, Madras High Court. “Today, judges mostly concentrate on commercial and taxation laws or writ jurisdiction,” he added.
Justice Sampath headed the commission constituted to enquire into the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy in which 94 students were charred to death in 2004.
The report recommended measures to be taken to prevent such fires in educational institutions.
Despite being a busy man even after retirement, he would make it a point to come to every occasion he was invited to, remembered R Gandhi, a senior advocate and former President of the Federation of Bar Association of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. “He would come to almost every wedding he was invited to with his wife. He was a fine man,” he added.
Justice Sampath was also assigned the task of holding an inquiry into the September 2011 police firing in Paramakudi in which five persons were shot dead during the 54th death anniversary of Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran.