Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur : Know Your Judges

Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur

Born on December 31, 1953, he studied at Modern School, New Delhi, till 1968 and thereafter passed ISCE examination in 1970-71 from St. Joseph’s College, Allahabad. He graduated in History (Hons.) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, in 1974.

He obtained LL.B. degree from Faculty of Law, Delhi University, in 1977. He enrolled as an advocate on July 28, 1977 and practiced in the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court. He qualified the examination and enrolled as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1981.

He was designated as Senior Advocate in February 1997. He was appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India on July 14, 1998 and continued as such till appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court on February 19, 1999.  Appointed  as  Permanent Judge of that High Court on July 5, 1999. He functioned as the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court from February 13, 2010 to May 21, 2010.

He functioned as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court from June 24, 2010 to November 14, 2011 and Chief Justice of High Court of Andhra Pradesh from November 15, 2011 to June 3, 2012. He was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court on June 4, 2012.

Lokur, along with Justice U.U. Lalit, used to head a social justice bench that was constituted by the Supreme Court in 2014. It was later shelved.

This bench heard cases on disparate issues such as the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, exploitation of children in orphanages in Tamil Nadu, monitoring of rehabilitation of those impacted by the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam, monitoring of the Nirbhaya fund, and the fund for rehabilitation of Devdasis in Karnataka.

While Lokur is known to be a soft-spoken judge, he doesn’t hesitate when it comes to taking government officials to task for their ineptitude.

Justice Lokur-led bench in October last year had passed a historic verdict criminalising sex with a wife who is not a major holding that sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age, even by the husband, would now amount to rape.

An order passed by Justice Lokur’s bench temporarily lifting the stay and permitting sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-national capital region before Diwali last year, had created a controversy.

Later, another bench of the top court had held that firecrackers would not be sold in Delhi-NCR during Diwali.

The bench headed by Justice Lokur, who is set to retire on December 30 this year, is also dealing with issues like air pollution and preservation of historic Taj Mahal.

LOKUR STATEMENT IN SOME LANDMARKS CASES-

• Child Porn & Rape Videos: SC Slaps Rs.1-Lakh Fine Each On Google, Face book, Yahoo, Microsoft, Whatsapp [Read Order] May 21, 2018 The Supreme Court has imposed costs of Rs. 1 lakh each on Yahoo, Face book Ireland, Face book India, Google India, GOOGLE
• “Decide Fast As It Involves Drinking Water And Not Irrigation”, SC To Yamuna Board In Delhi Vs Haryana Water Dispute Case May 16, 2018 Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur directs Upper Yamuna River Board to settle the dispute and asked both states. The court is hearing a petition filed by Delhi’s Kejriwal government seeking its intervention to direct Haryana to supply 450 cusecs of potable water daily to Wazirabad barrage for supply to Delhi as per its 1996 order.
• SC Modifies Order Staying Amendment Of Delhi Master Plan May 16, 2018 “There is a garbage dump of around 68 meters high and you are not able to do anything about it.
• SC Asks States, UTs To Seriously Consider Feasibility Of Establishing Open Prisons In As Many Locations As Possible May 10, 2018 We expect the state governments concerned to not only try and utilize the existing capacity of these open prison
• ‘Exceeded Jurisdiction’: SC Sets Aside NGT’s Direction For Pilgrims To Maintain Silence In Front Of Amarnath Ji Maha Shivling April 18, 2018 We are of the view that the tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction in giving the directions that it did, the bench. The Supreme Court has set aside National Green Tribunal orders that directed the pilgrims to maintain silence while standing in front of the Amarnath Ji Maha Shivling – a natural formation in the cave, observing that it exceeded its jurisdiction .In our view, the matter having been taken suo motu in the manner in which it has been, particularly since the application filed before the Tribunal pertained to the Shrine at Vaishno Devi, we are of the view that the Tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction.

(Four Supreme Court judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — in an unprecedented press conference went public with their grievances against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, saying things were not right the way India’s top court was functioning).