“Came Marching Like King Rajaraja Chola And Conquered Hearts”: Madras High Court Bids Farewell To Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala

While speaking at the farewell function organized by the court, TN Advocate General PS Raman said that Chief Justice Gangapurwala had marched into the chartered High Court like King Raja Raja Chola, and while the king had conquered distant lands, Justice Gangapurwala conquered the hearts of all.

“Your lordship came marching like King Raja Raja Cholan to take over the reins of this chartered high court while the Chola king conquered distant lands, your lordship conquered hearts. Despite your reign being short, it was certainly fruitful,” Raman said.

Raman also appreciated the inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm that the Judge exuded while sitting long hours in the court and his efforts to dispose of the cases. He talked about how the judge used to prepare a separate list for public interest litigations and make it a point to dispose of as many cases as possible.

Replying to the AG's address, Chief Justice Gangapurwala said that though he had apprehensions about how he would be received at the Madras High Court, he was soon made to feel at home by the brother judges of the court and the bar. He also added that the quality of arguments at the bar prompted him to sit long hours in the court without any worry.

Appreciating the young members of the bar, he also said that he was confident that they would carry forward the legacy of the court and advised them to not substitute hard work and to stay true to their conscience.

Justice Gangapurwala was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court on 28^th May 2023. He was previously the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court before moving to Madras. The central government had appointed Justice R Mahadevan as the Acting Chief Justice yesterday.

In his tenure of one year, Justice Gangapurwala was part of some important judgments, the most prominent of them upholding the Tamil Nadu government's prohibition on online gambling. While the court upheld the prohibition, it also noted that the prohibition would not apply to games of skills like rummy.

Justice Gangapurwala had also passed some queer-friendly directions like asking the state to provide horizontal reservation to transgender persons and asking the state not to insist on sex-reassignment surgery for publication in the official gazette.

In January this year, a bench led by Justice Gangapurwala also dismissed the appeals filed by Indian startups challenging Google's new billing policy.