HC judges, lawyers bid adieu to Chief Justice Murugesan

Judges and lawyers of Delhi High Court Friday bid adieu to Chief Justice D. Murugesan, who will retire June 8 after serving as a judge for more than 13 years.

During a full court reference, Justice Murugesan said in his farewell speech: "I firmly believe that we live in a world in which values like kindness and compassion are essential, which I kept always in my mind while discharging my duties."

"I also firmly believe that the greatest strength of the judiciary is the faith of the people in it. On my part, I had lived up to the expectation of a person to be a judge."

Justice Murugesan, during his tenure of eight months here, had pronounced several other significant judgments.

He also took a strong move towards safety of women while taken suo motu cognisance of the Dec 16 gang-rape here and issued directions to Delhi Police to prevent repeat of such incidents.

In a case related to Right To Education (RTE), he had observed that "educational institutions cannot be allowed to run as teaching shops" since that would be detrimental to equal opportunity to children and held that this act was not applicable to nursery classes.

He urged senior lawyers to guide their juniors to shape themselves to become able and dedicated lawyers and support them financially, if they are from poor back ground.

Born on June 10, 1951, in an agricultural family in the scenic Theni district in southern Tamil Nadu, Justice Murugesan enrolled as an advocate in August 1975.

He was appointed additional judge of the Madras High Court in March 2000, and was made permanent judge in June 2001.

He was sworn in chief justice of Delhi High Court Sep 26, 2012.