Judge whose 2-line order gave Jaya reprieve

The 18-year-old case that kept former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on tenterhooks, got over within minutes when a Karnataka High Court judge read out a two-line order. The most-awaited judgement not only gave a new lease of life to Tamil Nadu’s most-controversial leader, but also brought instant fame to the judge who read out the judgement. Justice Chikka Rachappa Kumaraswamy became a household name at the fag end of his career.

He has become such a popular personality in Tamil Nadu that an AIADMK leader has suggested party cadres name their newborn sons after him!

Karnataka High Court judge Justice C R Kumaraswamy, who delivered the verdict acquitting Jayalalithaa, hails from Malavalli in Mandya district, where even Jayalalithaa has her roots. She was born in Melukote in Mandya district.

Kumaraswamy (61) was born on August 25, 1953 in Mandya district. He completed his law degree in Bengaluru and started his law practice from March 11, 1983. For 12 years he practiced in civil, criminal and labour laws. In 1995, he passed the district judge examination and served as a principal district and sessions judge for 10 years in Bengaluru’s Sessions Court.

He was appointed an additional judge in the High Court at Bengaluru on March 7, 2005 and on March 1, 2007, he was made a permanent judge of the High Court.

Known as an “express judge” in the legal circles as he has solved and disposed off many cases within a couple of months. Kumaraswamy has delivered around 500 judgements in various cases pertaining to civil and criminal matters. He is better known for disposing off banking and cheque-bounce cases.

He engaged a dozen auditors to analyse income tax matters in Jayalalithaa’s case and while writing the 919-page judgement over 10 volumes, they were barred from carrying their phones or any other documents inside the chamber.

Kumaraswamy was appointed judge for the special court to hear the appeals of Jayalalithaa and her aides on January 1, and began hearing the case from January 5 for the next 41 days in a row, barring public holidays.

According to lawyers who have seen him very closely, he is a no-nonsense person and was very sincere in his work and has not delivered any controversial judgments till now.

“Kumaraswamy is very clean person and hard working. There is nobody in the legal profession, who could point a finger at him. He comes from a very good family and has a thorough knowledge about his work, which is evident in the number of cases that he has solved,” a senior advocate in the Karnataka High Court, who does not want his identity to be revealed said.

Pertaining to the Jayalalithaa appeal in High Court against the CBI trial court order, which had convicted her, Kumaraswamy had a daunting task at his hand to understand and solve the case. “It was more of an accountancy job than a judicial work for him to deal with the disproportionate assets case of Jayalalithaa. I think, he has done a wonderful job,” he said.

According to advocates, who have seen the way how Kumaraswamy functioned, the judge engaged a dozen auditors to analyse income tax matters in Jayalalithaa’s case and during the course of writing the 919-page judgement over 10 volumes, they were barred from carrying their mobile phones or any other documents inside the chamber. He had also engaged the services of trusted court officials to help him. “This only shows how meticulously Kumaraswamy worked on the case,” the senior advocate said.

Although Justice Kumaraswamy’s verdict has been criticism all over the social networks and may even be app- ealed in the Supreme Court, it will go down as a historic judgement.

Whether he was right in his judgement or not will only be known in the Supreme Court.

Justice Kumaraswamy is due for retirement on August 24 this year.