Madras HC bids farewell to Justice HG Ramesh, celebrates first ever Seniors Day

On Tuesday evening, members of the Bar and the Bench at the Madras High Court convened after court hours to celebrate the first-ever Seniors Day of the High Court..The event was organised by the Madras Bar Association (MBA). The idea was to honour members who have completed 80 years of age for their services towards the development of law and the profession itself, informed Vijay Narayan, President of the MBA and incumbent Advocate General..The same day also marked Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh’s final working day at the Madras High Court, before his transfer to the Madhya Pradesh High Court. In the farewell function organised earlier in the evening, Justice HG Ramesh commenced his address by summing up his experience in the following terms,.“I feel it suffices to say that I have done my duty according to my conscience right from the day I have taken charge of the judiciary…“.Justice HG Ramesh thanked the Madras High Court community for their cooperation during his tenure and said that he felt very privileged to have served as a judge of the Court for over three years. Before concluding his speech, Justice Ramesh also answered the oft-raised query regarding the short length of his orders. He said,.“I personally feel that judgements need not be measured by stationary…especially when you are keen and vigorous in the aspect of e-courts and paperless administration… we should concentrate on rendering justice and giving quietus to the disputes raised by the litigants.“.Justice Ramesh’s keenness to effectuate speedy justice was highlighted by AG Narayan too in his farewell speech..“Those of us who have appeared… before Justice Ramesh would vouch for the fact that he is a man of utter simplicity and treats both senior advocates and juniors alike,” said Narayan..“In almost all the matters that he hears, he immediately dictates orders in the open court. And it was only in those rare cases of complicated issues of fact and law that orders were reserved.“.Later in the evening, Justice Ramesh again reminded the audience that the role of the judge is to dispense speedy justice, while he welcomed the Seniors Day initiative by the MBA. Among other things, he also spoke of how the Madras Bar is comprised of learned members who take care of the youngsters as well..Justice S Manikumar also addressed the gathering on the occasion, recounting that he too has tried to emulate the style, presentation and modulation of senior lawyers. These aspects of senior lawyers often get imprinted on juniors as well, the judge noted. He went on to say that the Seniors Day initiative marked a great moment, a chance to see the elder brothers of the Bar and assemble as a family for the occasion..“I wish a long, happy life to my elder brothers“, Justice Manikumar said, as he concluded his address..The event also saw the presence of former Supreme Court judge, Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice, D Murugeshan, and former High Court judges, T Sudanthiram, KN Basha, B Rajendran and S Tamilvanan..The occasion served to honour over 50 members of the Madras Bar who have completed 80 years of age, which include Attorney General for India, KK Venugopal and former Madras High Court judge, S Ramalingam..The event served to demonstrate that age has not slowed down any of the Senior members in practicing their craft. Each name announced for felicitation was accompanied by a short biography which inevitably ended with a note that they were active practitioners. This, despite the fact that some of the lawyers felicitated, had completed 90 years of age..The lawyers remembered on the occasion (although not all could participate in the event) included T Raghavan, Kanagaraj, K Parasaran, KV Srininvasaraghavan, Varadachari , KM Santhanagopalan, K Venkateswara Rao , C Ramakrishna, MV Krishnan, C Chinnasami, S Masilamani, R Krishnamoorthy, PR Selvaraj, Dr TS Ramaswamy, G Soundarajan, S Somasundaram, N Natarajan, INV Subramanian, KK Venugopal, Justice S Ramalingam, S Ramasubramaniam, A Balaguru, K Veeraraghavan, TS Ramarathnam, M Subramaniam, R Thyagarajan, B Sriramulu, R Desabhandhu, N Palaniappan, BT Seshadri, VK Muthuswami, R Shanmugam, P Suryaprakasam, D Krishnan, V Natarajan, K Alagiriswami, Dr DC Pandian, G Narayanan, PR Krishnan, R Lokpriya, P Haridas, C Srinivas, NGR Prasad, I Subramanian, A Raghunathan, M Sivalingam, NR Chandran, G Krishnan, R Gandhi, C Natarajan, VR Venkataraman, S Muthuramalingam, S Rajaram, S Raghavan and K Doraiswami..MBA Secretary, VR Kamalantathan proposed the vote of thanks and expressed hope that the novel initiative of Seniors Day will be continued in the future as well.