A mind of her own: Meet SC judge who rejected Chidambaram's bail plea

Supreme Court Justice  R Banumathi does not court the limelight. But right from her days in the lower courts to some recent actions in the apex court, she has unwittingly attracted the headlines. Her recent decision cancelling the anticipatory bail plea moved by former finance minister P Chidambaram is one of them. The other is her recent letter to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi criticising the elevation of a judge to the Supreme Court after superseding more senior candidates.  

So who is Justice Banumathi? For nearly 42 months starting October 2014, Justice R Banumathi remained the lone woman judge in the Supreme Court. Elevated only in April that year, Justice Banumathi was then only the sixth woman judge in the apex court.

The fact that she is only the second woman to have risen through the ranks as a judge from the lower court to a judge in the Supreme Court, indicates how difficult it is to traverse the judicial lanes in India.

The first woman to rise to the top court from the lower judiciary was Justice M Fathima Beevi, who  is also the first female judge to have been elevated to the Supreme Court. Between Justice Beevi and Justice Banumathi, only four more women judges were elevated to the top court.

Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Indira Banerjee, both sitting judges currently, later joined Justice Banumathi, who is now the senior most female judge in the apex court.

Born on July 20, 1955, Justice Banumathi enrolled as an advocate at 26 years. Seven years later, she entered Tamilnadu Higher Judicial Service as a direct recruit District Judge.

For the next 15 years, Justice Banumathi worked all over the state, presiding over many district and sessions courts. She was later elevated to the Madras High Court in 2003.

Having traversed such a long way, one would assume that time would have had its effects on her. On the contrary, Justice Banumathi continues to remain a strict but soft-spoken disciplinarian. She is not shy of taming the proverbial bull either. 

As a judge in of the Madras High Court, Justice Banumathi had in 2003 ordered a blanket ban on jallikattu, the bull taming sport of Tamilnadu. In her judgment banning the sport, she had written that the “jallikattu is no more fun or veera vilayattu [a brave sport] but clearly a violation of animal rights and perpetration of cruelty on hapless animals”. 

The judgment created a furore, prompting the state government as well as the central government to come out with rules circumventing the high court orders. Though the sport was again put on hold by the apex court, it was Justice Banumathi’s judgment that prompted a review of the rules of the annual ritual.

The case followed her to the Supreme Court but she recused herself from the bench when the matter came up for hearing in 2016.

As a district judge in Pudukottai, Tamilnadu, Justice Banumathi’s 1997 order sentencing controversial self-styled “Godman” Premananda to two consecutive life terms for rape and murder had also ruffled quite a few feathers in the state. Even the presence of legal eagle Late Ram Jethmalani, who had defended Premananda in the district court, had little impact on the outcome of the case. 

The judgment, which ensured that the controversial preacher would stay in jail forever, was  accompanied with a hefty fine of Rs 66 lakh. Though the fine amount was later reduced by the Madras High Court by Rs 5 lakh, the double life sentence decision pronounced by Justice Banumathi was upheld. 

Along with Premananda alias Premkumar alias Ravi, charged with raping 13 inmates, molesting two and murdering  an engineer in the ashram, Justice Banumathi had also sentenced nearly 10 other people for being co-conspirators.

Justice Banumathi, who is said to be keenly interested in continuing judicial education for judicial officers, doesnot shy away from expressing her opinion. Earlier this month, she is learnt to have written a letter to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, expressing her reservations against the elevation of a judge who was much lower in the all-India seniority list, as a Chief Justice in a state high court.

In her letter, Justice Banumathi had reportedly objected to the apex court collegium decision to appoint Himachal Pradesh high court Chief Justice V Ramasubramanian to the Supreme Court, bypassing Manipur high court chief justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, who is higher on the seniority list.

Her decision to cancel Chidambaram's anticipatory bail plea was  hailed as one of the most technically correct judgments in recent times. The order had also prompted a senior advocate to note that she was the most apt judge to hear such matters as her initial years had been in lower court, where such cases for bail come on the most 

regular basis.

Justice Banumathi is due to retire in July 2020. With about eight months to go, it would be unfair not to assume some more astute and sharp judgments from her.