Gopal Ballav Pattanaik

Gopal Ballav Pattanaik was the 32nd Chief Justice of India.^[1]

He was born on 19 December 1937 in the city of Cuttack, now in Odisha, India. He is the eldest son of Rashbehari Pattnaik and Bidulata Dei.

He studied at the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and Allahabad University and earned his law degree from M. S. Law College, Utkal University in Odisha.

In 1962, he enrolled as an advocate in the Orissa High Court, where he practiced in civil, criminal, constitutional and business cases. He also appeared before the Supreme Court of India.

In 1971, he was appointed to the Standing Counsel for the state Government of Orissa. In 1974 he became an Additional Government Advocate and subsequently the Govt Advocate of the state. In 1983, he was elevated to the bench of the Orissa High Court as a permanent judge. In 1995, he was appointed the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. Only four months later, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of India. He went on to occupy the highest judicial post in the country as the Chief Justice of India on 8 November 2002.

When Pattanaik took over as the Chief Justice of India, it appeared that he would not be able to achieve much in the administration of the judiciary, in view of his short tenure .Yet, he began a momentous chapter in the history of Indian judiciary by putting into practice the 'in-house procedure' evolved in 1997 to deal with allegations of misconduct against members of the higher judiciary.

Some of the well published judgements of Justice Pattanaik include:-

• the Narmada Dam Project.
• Denying the central government of India the ability to grant permission to Hindu organisations to perform ceremonies at the disputed Babri masjid site in Ayodhya.
• Contempt of court case against Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy.
• Acquittal of several persons belonging to the minority community in cases relating to the Bombay riots.
• The constitutional reference on the minority educational institutions.

Justice Pattanaik was a member of the Indo British and Indo-U.S. judicial exchange programme. He visited UK and the United States and participated in joint workshops and seminars with the judges of the House of Lords in Britain and the U.S Supreme Court, respectively.

He was conferred an honorary doctorate in law LLD by the Utkal University.

He now resides in New Delhi with his wife Meera and is active as an arbitrator in India and overseas. He has 3 children Amar, Anjan, and Rinku.

References

External links

• www.frontlineonnet.com
• supremecourtofindia.nic.in
• ibnlive.in
• orissa.gov.in
• http://orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=18357

Chief Justices of India
H. J. Kania M. Patanjali Sastri Mehr Chand Mahajan Bijan Kumar Mukherjea Sudhi Ranjan Das Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha P. B. Gajendragadkar Amal Kumar Sarkar Koka Subba Rao Kailas Nath Wanchoo Mohammad Hidayatullah Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah Sarv Mittra Sikri Ajit Nath Ray Mirza Hameedullah Beg Y. V. Chandrachud P. N. Bhagwati Raghunandan Swarup Pathak Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah Sabyasachi Mukharji Ranganath Misra Kamal Narain Singh Madhukar Hiralal Kania Lalit Mohan Sharma Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi J. S. Verma Madan Mohan Punchhi Adarsh Sein Anand Sam Piroj Bharucha Bhupinder Nath Kirpal Gopal Ballav Pattanaik V. N. Khare S. Rajendra Babu Ramesh Chandra Lahoti Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal K. G. Balakrishnan S. H. Kapadia Altamas Kabir P. Sathasivam Rajendra Mal Lodha H. L. Dattu T. S. Thakur (Incumbent) Jagdish Singh Khehar (designate)