NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the transfer of Odisha High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Since the retirement of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on September 12, Justice T Raja has been acting Chief Justice of the Madras HC.
If the collegium recommendation is accepted by the Union government, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Justice Muralidhar who began his legal career in Chennai in 1984. Justice Muralidhar was appointed additional judge of the Delhi HC in 2006 after a career that included significant pro bono work in the cases of Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims and persons displaced by the dams on the Narmada. He was made a permanent judge in 2007 and was later transferred to the Punjab and Haryana HC on March 6, 2020, before being appointed as Chief Justice of Odisha HC on December 31, 2020.
Justice Muralidhar was part of the Delhi HC bench that first decriminalised homosexuality in the 2009 Naz Foundation case. Some of his other notable rulings include granting of bail to imprisoned intellectuals and activists, including Gautam Navlakha, for alleged Maoist links, the Hashimpura verdict convicting members of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary in the 1986 killings and the conviction of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.