Madras High Court gets six Additional Judges

Through two notifications dated today, the Central government has notified the appointment of six new additional judges to the Madras High Court.

Five persons have been appointed as additional judges for a period of two years from the date on which they assume office: T Krishnavalli, R Pongiappan, R Hemalatha, R Tharani and P Rajamanickam.

However, with respect to S Ramathilagam, the period of appointment has been specified to be from the date of assuming charge of her office till September 24, 2019.

S Ramathilagam is a Chief Judge at Pondicherry, R Tharani is a Principal District Judge at Madurai, T Krishnavalli is the Chairman of the Permanent Lok Adalat at Madurai, R Hemalatha is a District Judge at Karur, P Rajamanickam is the Registrar (Judicial) at the Madras High Court and R Pongiappan is a Principal District Judge at Coimbatore.

All six judges were recommended for elevation to the Bench in October this year by the Supreme Court.

The recommendation was made after Collegium members Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi considered input from their brother judges conversant with the affairs of the Madras High Court, the opinion of the Judge Committee which reviews judgments, as well reports from the Information Bureau.

A total of ten district judges and tribunal members were recommended for elevation by the Madras High Court Collegium and the Tamil Nadu government; for varying reasons, four of the names were rejected.

Read Notifications below.