The Madras High Court Acting Chief Justice T. Raja on Monday administered the oath of office to advocate V. Lakshminarayanan who has been appointed as an additional judge of the High Court for a two-year term,
On February 23, the Centre government notified his appointment as an additional judge.
With the appointment of Advocate Lakshminarayanan, the Madras High Court’s strength has increased to 58 out of a sanctioned strength of 75.
In his acceptance speech, Justice Lakshminarayanan stated that the elevation is an opportunity to take the nation beyond the self. He said he has changed his mind about what he wrote when retired Justice Kannan was elevated to the Bench.
“Adorning the bench is a natural progression of a lawyer but today I hold a different view. The transition of a lawyer from the bar to the bench is not an achievement of the self but it is beyond that,” he stated.
He went on to say that it is the transition from “self-centered” to “selfless,” and that it is “time to put the nation beyond the self.”
While welcoming the newly sworn-in judge, Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram stated that the institution and the lawyers will benefit from Lakshminarayanan’s “vast knowledge, sharp intellect, and practical experience.”
Brief Profile:
Justice Lakshminarayanan was born on October 4, 1970, in Chennai, and attended Sir M.C.T. Muthiah Chettiar Higher Secondary School before studying science at D.G. Vaishnav College, also in Chennai. After receiving his law degree from the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, he joined the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) in 1995. His areas of practise included constitutional law, civil and criminal law, trust law with a focus on Hindu and Islamic trust law, and intellectual property law.
Since 2010, Justice Lakshminarayanan has served as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Madras Law Journal and the Madras Law Journal (Criminal). He had served as a resource person at the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, where he trained judicial officers ranging from District Munsifs (civil Judges in the lower division) to District Judges (civil Judge- senior division).
He was also appointed by the Governor to the Senate of the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University in 2018 and again in 2021. He had also attended international events in the United States and Nepal.
