Former Chief Justice of the High Courts of Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, and Chattisgarh and judge of the Kerala High Court, Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan, passed away on Monday.
Justice Radhakrishnan was born on April 29, 1959, as the son of the late N Bhaskaran Nair and the late K Parukutty Amma, both of whom were lawyers who practiced in Kollam district of Kerala.
He did his schooling in St. Joseph's Convent and Government Boys' High School, Kollam, the Arya Central School, Thiruvananthapuram and secured ISC conferred by the University of Cambridge (Local Examination Syndicate), having studied in Trinity Lyceum, Kollam.
After obtaining a B.Sc. Degree in Zoology from the University of Kerala as a student of the Fatima Matha National College, Kollam, he secured LL.B. Degree from the KGF Law College of Bangalore University.
In December 1983, he enrolled as a lawyer and commenced his practice at practised at Thiruvananthapuram as junior to late advocate P
Ramakrishna Pillai.
Five years later, he shifted his practice to the Kerala High Cour and joined the office of the late Senior Advocate P Sukumaran Nair.
He practiced in various fields of law but his primary focus was on Civil, Constitutional and Administrative Law.
Over 15 years later, on October 14, 2004, Justice Radhakrishnan was sworn-in as permanent Judge of the High Court of Kerala on 14th October, 2004.
While he was a judge of the Kerala High Court, he also donned several other hats as well.
He served as the President of the Kerala Judicial Academy, the Executive Chairman of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority, the Executive Chairman of the Lakshadweep State Legal Services Authority, the Chairman of the Law Reporting Council, ILR (Kerala Series) and the President of the Rule Committee under Section 123 of the Code of Civil Procedure. He was a Member of the Central Authority of the National Legal Services Authority as well.
On May 13, 2016, Justice Radhakrishnan was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court and served in that position till August 1 of the same year.
On February 2, 2017, he was once again appointed as the Acting Chief Justice and he held that post until he was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Chattisgarh High Court on March 18.
In July, 2018, Justice Radhakrihsnan was sworn in as Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. On January 1, 2019, he was sworn-in as the Chief Justice of the High Court for the State of Telangana.
Finally, on April 4, 2019, he was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, a post which he occupied until his retirement in April, 2021.