Justice SS Shinde, Known For Sitting Beyond Court Hours, Retires As Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice

Justice Shinde served a tenure of around 42 days at the Rajasthan High Court.

He took oath as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court on 21st June, 2022. He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the High court of Bombay on 17th March 2008 and was then confirmed as Permanent Judge on 13th March 2010.

Notably, during his tenure at Bombay High Court, he hit headlines, as the division bench headed by him sat till 8.30 pm on 9 June 2022, hearing various criminal cases. It heard over 215 out of the 265 cases listed before it. The same bench on 8 June 2022 heard 190 cases.

In this regard, during his farewell speech today, he said,

"Besides protecting constitutional values and upholding judicial independence and rule of law, my endeavour has always been to ensure speedy justice to all, especially downtrodden, underprivileged and weaker sections of the society so that the faith and confidence of the public in judiciary is greatly enhanced. In this perspective, I used to often sit in court beyond court working hours, sometimes till 8:30pm or exceptionally till 9pm."

Justice Shinde added,

"This was only possible with the support and cooperation of my bench partners, the members of the Bar, which was vibrant and strong, having been equipped with so many able, competent, diligent, proficient, cooperative and eminent lawyers, and my staff members who tirelessly worked to assist me."

Justice Shinde completed his law from Marathwada University (now Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University) at Aurangabad. Later, he obtained LL.M Degrees from Pune University, and from Warwick University, United Kingdom.

Justice Shinde had presided over various high-profile cases in the recent past including the abetment to suicide case against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, cases against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and actress Kangana Ranaut.