The Verdictum Justice Swatanter Kumar

Justice Swatanter Kumar was the last judge to bid farewell to the Apex Court in the year 2012. Although Justice Kumar was due to retire on December 30, 2012, his appointment as Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal led him to resign from the Supreme Court on December 20, 2012. Justice Kumar served in the Supreme Court of India for 1093 days and delivered 94 judgments..Justice Swatanter Kumar was the last judge to bid farewell to the Apex Court in the year 2012. Although Justice Kumar was due to retire on December 30, 2012, his appointment as Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal led him to resign from the Supreme Court on December 20, 2012..Justice Kumar began his career as an Advocate enrolled in the Delhi Bar Council and was appointed an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court on November 10, 1994. He was subsequently transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court where he was made a Permanent Judge. On March 31, 2007 Justice Kumar was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, eventually being elevated to the Supreme Court on December 18, 2009..Justice Kumar served in the Supreme Court of India for 1093 days and delivered 94 judgments..It was a Division Bench of Justices Kumar and A K Patnaik (in Namit Sharma v. Union of India) that held that, “information commissions under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) must function with two-member benches and the Chief Information Commissioner at the Centre must necessarily be a person who is or has been the Chief Justice of a High Court or a judge of the Supreme Court” inviting criticism from RTI activists and legal experts..Justice Kumar while in the Apex Court held that, all cases on environmental issues except those related to wildlife should be transferred to the National Green Tribunal.. The VerdictumName of the JudgeTenureTime period considered for the analysisNo: of days in Supreme Court (including holidays) No: of Judgements DeliveredJustice Swatanter Kumar18.12.2009 to (DoR)30.12.201218.12.2009 to (DoR)14.12.2012109394.The data has been obtained from Supreme Court’s judgment database Judis and may be subject to minor variance. The research team consisted of Nikhil V from GNLU, Gandhinagar, Arya Vivek from NUALS, Cochin and Sonakshi Das from KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar..Photo courtesy this website.