The Union Ministry of Law and Justice on Monday notified the President’s order appointing Justice M. Duraiswamy, the senior most judge of the Madras High Court, to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice of the High Court with effect from September 13.
The appointment has been made due to the superannuation of incumbent Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on September 12. Justice Duraiswamy was also due to retire from service on September 21 on attaining the age of 62 and after completing 13 years as a judge of the High Court.
After graduating from the Madras Law college, he had enrolled with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on January 21, 1987, served as a junior under A.S. Venkatachalamoorthy, who was later elevated to the Bench and became the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.
During his 22-year stint as a lawyer, Justice Duraiswamy was appointed as Central Government Standing Counsel between 1997 and 2000. He was elevated as Additional Judge of the High Court on March 31, 2009 and was made permanent on March 29, 2011.
He had already performed the duties of the Chief Justice of the High Court for a short period in November 2021 when the then Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee was transferred to Meghalaya. Thereafter, Justice Bhandari took charge as Acting Chief Justice and became the Chief Justice on February 10 this year.
