Content with my performance as judge: Kerala High Court Justice C Pratheep Kumar bids farewell

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday held a full court reference in honour of Justice C Pradeep Kumar ahead of his retirement from service on May 28, Thursday.

Delivering his farewell address, Justice Kumar reflected on his short tenure at the High Court and said that although he had only two years and seven months on the Bench, he tried to make the most of it by focusing on disposing as many cases as possible.

"In my attempt to cover up my short stint, I divided my allotted years into 31 months ... Then my attempt was to dispose of more and more cases, initially on a monthly basis later on a daily basis," the judge said.

He stated that he disposed of around 6,341 cases during his tenure, including 3,100 criminal cases, 1,173 MACA cases and several appeals and revisions.

Justice Kumar spoke about the responsibility that came with his elevation as a High Court judge and said that he believed the title of 'Justice' was added to his name, not to display authority, but to serve society with humility.

"Personally speaking, I am satisfied and content with my achievements and performance as judge of this Court. I know that my belief has nothing to do with reality and ultimately it is for the Bar to evaluate a judge," he added while crediting the Bar or shaping his understanding in law.

He stressed that an independent, fearless and impartial judiciary was essential for a healthy democracy and added that members of the Bar had a duty to protect the judicial institution so that courts could function freely and fairly.

"Both the Bench and the Bar are like two wings of a bird. Unless both wings work in tandem, the bird will not be able to fly," Justice Pratheep remarked.

He added that if false allegations are raised against judges, the Bar should appropriately address such instances through corrective mechanisms so that contempt proceedings could be avoided or minimised.

The farewell reference was attended by judges of the Kerala High Court, Advocate General Jaju Babu, Additional Solicitor General P Sreekumar, Director General of Prosecution Asaf Ali and the President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) Peeyus A Kottam, among others.

Justice Kumar was born on May 28, 1964. He obtained a BSc degree from Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram, before pursuing LLB and LLM from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.

He enrolled as an advocate on December 17, 1989 and also served as a lecturer at the Government Law College, Kozhikode, during the period 1993 to 1994.

Justice Kumar entered judicial service as Munsiff Magistrate in 1996 and was promoted as a District Judge in 2014.

Prior to his elevation to the High Court, he served as Principal District Judge at Thalassery and Kozhikode.

He was as an Additional Judge of the Kerala High Court on October 25, 2023 and was appointed a Permanent Judge of the High Court in September 2025.

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