New Delhi: The President of Fiji has reappointed Justice Madan B. Lokur — a former judge of the Supreme Court of India — as a judge of the non-resident panel of the Supreme Court of Fiji.
Justice Lokur, who served on the Supreme Court of India from 2012 to 2018, was first sworn to Fiji’s apex court in August 2019 for three years. He was the first Indian judge to be appointed to the apex court of another country.
On 15 July 2019, former Supreme Court Justice A.K. Sikri was appointed as an ad-hoc judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court.
The Supreme Court of Fiji has in the past also invited judges from countries including South Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand.
The order, dated 5 January, stated that the President, “acting upon the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission and the endorsement of the Attorney-General has reappointed Justice Lokur for a term of three (3) years with effect from 21st January 2022”.
Who is Justice Madan B. Lokur?
Madan B. Lokur completed his graduation in History (Honours) from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, in 1974, and obtained an LLB from the same university’s Faculty of Law in 1977.
He enrolled as an advocate on 28 July 1977 and practised at the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court, and qualified as an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court in 1981.
He served as a standing counsel for the Union government from 1990 to 1996 and was designated a senior advocate in February 1997, before being appointed additional solicitor general of India in July 1998.
Justice Lokur was then appointed a judge of the Delhi High Court in 1999, and served there for 11 years, becoming acting Chief Justice for a few months in 2010 before being transferred as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court.
In 2011, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and served in that capacity until his elevation to the Supreme Court on 4 June 2012.
During his time on the Supreme Court of India, Justice Lokur’s bench was popularly dubbed the ‘social justice bench’. It was the only court other than that of the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra that could hear public interest issues.
Justice Lokur was also among the four senior Supreme Court judges who publicly criticised the then CJI Misra in 2018.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
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