Former Bombay High Court judge, Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court by Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Sunday. The ceremony that took place in the Raj Bhavan saw the Governor administering the oath of office to the new Chief Justice.
Present at this event were Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, state ministers, former Chief Justice of Madras High Court and current Supreme Court Judge Indira Banerjee, judges from the Madras High Court, Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan and other senior officials.
TN's new Chief Justice
Born in 1958, the 60-year-old Chief Justice enrolled into the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in 1982. She was also working part-time as faculty in the KC Law College between 1987 and 1993. She practiced as a lawyer in both the Bombay High Court and in City Civil and Sessions courts in Mumbai.
Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani has handled multiple cases as a Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor on the appellate side. These reportedly range from matters that fell under the National Security Act to cases regarding the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances act.
Justice Vijaya was elevated as a judge in 2001 at the Bombay High Court. She also briefly served as the acting Chief Justice several times. She was appointed as Acting CJ for the first time after Chief Justice Mohit Shah retired in 2015, and then again in 2016 when Chief Justice DH Waghela retired. She took over for the third time in 2017 when CJ Manjula Chellur retired.
In one of her last judgements for the Bombay High Court, she rejected the plea of a 1993 serial blasts convict to be released on parole to attend to his ailing wife.
"Consideration of sympathy for him cannot be permitted to overshadow the consideration regarding security of the society," the division bench of the acting Chief Justice and another judge had observed.
Justice Vijaya is the third woman to assume the charge of Chief Justice at the Madras High Court. With her appointment the Madras High Court will continue to have the highest number of women judges across High Courts in the country. The Madras High Court will thus continue to have 12 women judges on the Bench.