Chennai, Apr 23 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday urged the Supreme Court collegium to ensure that the principle of social justice is followed in appointment of judges to the High Courts and Supreme Court.
Underscoring the ‘long pending request’ to constitute a Bench of the Supreme Court at Chennai, Stalin said people of southern states now had to visit New Delhi to get justice.
The Chief Minister was addressing an event held at the Madras High Court in which Chief Justice of Supreme Court, N V Ramana presided.
“In the appointment of judges to the High Court and Supreme Court, the Honourable Collegium may kindly ensure that the principle of social justice along with other parameters for appointment is followed. In this way, I consider that the principle of inclusiveness would be ensured in higher judiciary,” Stalin said.
The Chief Minister also requested that the official language of the state, Tamil be allowed to be used in the High Court of Madras. “This is a long pending and important request of the people and legal community of the State.” Already 4 states–Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh use their official languages in their respective High Courts, he said.
The chief minister said these were the requests on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government and the people and expressed confidence that the judges would certainly consider all the requests favourably.
“Today, we have an excellent judicial system headed by our Chief Justice of India. As the guardian of the Constitution, the Indian judicial system has performed very well and is held in high esteem by the people of this country,” Stalin said.
Judges of the apex court, Justice V Ramasubramanian and MM Sundresh, Chief Justice, Madras High Court, Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Law Minister S Regupathy and Advocate General, R Shunmugasundaram participated.
In the event, Justice Ramana laid the foundation stone for construction of a 9-storied administrative block in the High Court campus (at an estimated cost of Rs 20.24 crore).
He also inaugurated combined court buildings and judicial officers’ quarters in Namakkal and Villupuram districts, built at a cost of Rs 20.70 crore.
Stalin inaugurated the first Commerical Court at Egmore here constructed at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore and gave away welfare assistance of Rs 7 lakh each to 5 families of deceased advocates (from TN Advocates Welfare Fund), marking the launch of distribution of benefits to the kin of 467 departed advocates.
The Chief Minister also handed over a Government Order to Justice Ramana and Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari allocating 4.24 acre to the judiciary to set up courts in Chennai.
Stalin presented to Justice Ramana, a book ‘A Dravidian Journey-Glimpses into Tamil Nadu’s Transformation to a Post-Agrarian Society’, authored by J Jeyaranjan.
Vice-chairman, Bar Council of India, S Prabakaran, Chairman of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, P S Amalraj took part in the event. PTI VGN SA SA
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
