Madras and Jharkhand High Court, Appointment of Judges

Press India Bureau reports that President Pratibha Patil has appointed Justice K. Kannan as a Permanent Judge of the Madras High Court. Prior to this appointment, he was Additional Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court.

Justice K. Kannan, a former editor of the Madras Law Journal, an ardent blogger, being the first one to declare his assets without any qualms and the only one who replied to an activist's letter openly addressing that Judges should declare their assets. He was a Senior Counsel before being elevated to the Bench as Additional Judge of the Madras High Court in July 2008 and was later transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court in November 2008.

Along with the apopintment of Justice Kannan, Justice Shrimati Jaya Roy has been appointed as the Additional Judge of the Jharkhand High Court, for a duration of one year. She is the only female judge at the Jharkhand High Court and she was also credited for being the first female advocate in Ranchi Bench of Patna High Court at Ranchi.

19^th Law Commission constituted

A PIB press release also reports on the constitution of the 19^th Law Commission of India headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice P.V. Reddy.

The press release also states that with a view to induct more legal experts in the Commission, the Government has approved the appointments of various other legal luminaries in the Commission. The newly inducted members include former Judge of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma and former Additional Solicitor General of India, Amarjit Singh as full time members.

Other part time members include Senior Counsels, B. V. Acharya, R. Venkataramani and A. Mariarputham. Giving weightage to members from the legal education field, the appointments also include Ranbir Singh, dean of Nalsar, Shashikala Gurupur Murphy, principal of Symbiosis Law School and Afzal Wani, former dean of University of Law & Legal Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

Former Presiding Officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, C. Achuthan also finds his name among the part time appointments.