Chennai: It’s 4.45 pm and a bell signals the end of working hours in the Madras High Court. But proceedings are far from over in courtroom number 51, presided over by Justice N. Anand Venkatesh. It is not unusual for the judge to hear cases till 7 in the evening or during holidays. During the first wave of Covid-19 infections, he disposed of as many as 5,000 cases including motor accident claims involving a staggering sum of Rs 10.38 crore.
According to the roster prepared by Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala for the first three months of this year, Justice Venkatesh was assigned the portfolio for cases against sitting or former MPs and MLAs starting 2 January. When he last held this portfolio, in August, the 54-year-old had in a rare judicial measure taken up suo motu a plea for revision against the acquittal/discharge of six politicians, for which he was praised by the Supreme Court.
The six politicians included four of the DMK, namely Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Rural Development Minister I. Periyasamy, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu and former minister for higher education K. Ponmudy, and two of the AIADMK, former chief minister O. Panneerselvam and former social welfare minister B. Valarmathi.
In September last year, soon after Justice Venkatesh took up suo motu the plea for revision against the acquittal of the then higher education minister Ponmudy and his wife P. Visalakshi in a disproportionate assets case registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2002, the judge was requested by the minister and the DVAC to recuse himself from the case. But Justice Venkatesh refused.
Ponmudy approached the apex court challenging the suo motu proceedings initiated by Justice Venkatesh. Rather than dismissing the proceedings, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud praised the judge and said: “It is the correct order. Thank god for our judicial institutions that we have judges like Justice Anand Venkatesh.”
According to a court order, Justice Venkatesh found a pattern in the above-mentioned cases involving senior politicians.
“The three stakeholders viz., the accused, the prosecution and the Special Court have acted in tandem to reduce the administration of the criminal justice system to a complete farce,” read the order concerning disproportionate assets cases against Ramachandran and Thennarasu. In this case, the judge also held that “exercising the powers of revision under Article 227 of the Constitution and Sections 397 and 401 of CrPC was appropriate to avert any miscarriage of justice”.
The Supreme Court too has been making efforts to ensure transparency in such cases, Justice Venkatesh tells ThePrint. “How far it can be done, how effectively it can be done, these are not the questions we have to be trying to find answers for. We should do our best towards this initiative. I am only trying to do what the apex court is asking us to do and I am doing this by exercising all the powers that are available.”
ThePrint reached the DMK and AIADMK for comment via calls and messages but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
‘Best learning ground for young lawyers’
A practising advocate at the Madras High Court, speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, recalls one instance of a junior lawyer arguing a case in Justice Venkatesh’s courtroom. The judge took out his iPad, told the young lawyer to make a note of some citations, read up on them and argue his case before the court the next day, he says.
“Interestingly, I remember a senior counsel standing next to me asking ‘what is the judge doing?’ I told him he is giving citations to the junior. The senior counsel laughed and said isn’t the junior supposed to be giving the citation to the judge. I said no. In this court it is otherwise.”
Justice Venkatesh’s courtroom, he adds, is the “best learning ground for young junior lawyers”.
Lawyer and legal columnist Sanjay Pinto says Justice Venkatesh is the kind of judge of whom you would want to make a “clone”.
“He is very encouraging when it comes to juniors. When juniors come asking for adjournment of a case when the senior was on the way etc., you can hear him advise the junior to read up the case and argue it in court.”
Appearing in Justice Venkatesh’s courtroom can serve as a learning curve for young lawyers, Pinto tells ThePrint. “You have to be on your toes, no lawyer would dare enter his court without the relevant statutory book in their hands because if he asks you a question you shouldn’t be fumbling.”
Justice Venkatesh acknowledges the value he attaches to young lawyers who he refers to as “future torchbearers of this institution”. According to him, there are two reasons for how he treats junior lawyers.
“One, as an advocate you would have had a grievance whenever a judge had snubbed you or cut you short in court or not given a junior a chance to argue. So when you feel like that, you should not repeat that mistake. Second, as the future torchbearers of this institution, a word of encouragement and appreciation will give a lot of moral strength to them to continue in the profession and they must be made more comfortable in court and should get something more than what the senior would have got in the court.”
He adds that he has made it a practice to appreciate at least two juniors in his courtroom each day.
Asked how the judge manages his courtroom, the advocate quoted earlier says Justice Venkatesh always reads up on his cases. “There is no difficulty; lawyers don’t have to struggle too much in his court because he’s generally well read about the case and already five paces ahead of most counsel.”
Pinto, who has appeared in Justice Venkatesh’s court as a senior counsel on more than one occasion, says the judge is open-minded, hears cases with no preconceived notions and proceeds solely on the merits of the case.
On his approach, Justice Venkatesh says: “I’m a servant of the public. I’m given all the facilities. People believe if they come to this system they will get something. I don’t want to disappoint them, I want to do the maximum for them.”
In March 2019, he wrote in an order that the Tamil Nadu government be held responsible, as an abettor, for crimes committed in the state under the influence of alcohol. The order was challenged in the Supreme Court which observed that it “exceeded the (court’s) jurisdiction” and directed that a few of the observations be “effaced from the record”.
From north Chennai to Madras High Court
Justice Venkatesh attributes his merits to his passion for the job. His love affair with the legal profession, he says, can be traced back to his exposure to commercial law when he was a boy studying in Class 11 or 12. He adds that being a single child from a lower middle class family from north Chennai also shaped him.
His father M.A. Nanda was employed by a chemical factory in Avadi and mother Choodamani was a homemaker. Though Justice Venkatesh grew up in a joint family, he says being an only child was a disadvantage. “You start with a disadvantage when you are an only child. It takes a lot of time for you to get along with others; adjusting with others is a problem, and you see things from only your point of view.”
The family, he recalls, depended entirely on his father’s income. “Maybe luxuries may not have been there but it’s good that you don’t get exposed to luxury at a young age… in hindsight, I think that it was a big advantage to start from a disadvantageous position. It also helps you in appreciating, empathising people who are struggling and suffering. You are able to connect yourself well, understand the situation.”
As a first-year Bachelor of Law (B.L.) student at the Ambedkar Law college in Chennai, Justice Venkatesh joined the chamber of senior advocate B. Ramamoorthy. Even after enrolling with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 1993, he continued practising with the chamber till 1997. “He (Ramamoorthy) gave me a lot of freedom in terms of reading the case bundle, reading the books in the office after hours. That was a big encouragement for me and he was the only senior I worked with,” he says.
Ramamoorthy’s chamber was also where Justice Venkatesh met his to-be wife. The two were in a relationship for five years before they tied the knot. “There was a lot of opposition (to the intercaste marriage) but ultimately no one regrets it now,” he adds. The couple have a son.
The judge also recalls how as a young first-generation lawyer with an independent practice, he took up whatever cases came his way. He argued matters before the Central Administrative Tribunal’s Chennai bench and subordinate courts — both civil and criminal.
On numerous occasions, he was also appointed as amicus curiae (friend of the court) to the Madras High Court.
Justice Venkatesh was also part of the consultation and drafting committee the recommendations of which culminated in the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015.
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Justice SK Kaul: the ‘fatherly figure’
The walls of Justice Venkatesh’s chamber in the Madras High Court have only one framed photograph, that of former Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul who he describes as a “fatherly figure”. Justice Venkatesh admits that he did not know about Justice Kaul until the latter’s appointment as chief justice of the Madras High Court in 2014. It was Justice Kaul who recommended Venkatesh’s elevation as a judge.
“Without Justice S.K. Kaul I would have never become a judge; I had no background at all. He is everything to me. I did not know who he was before he came to the Madras High Court. Somehow he was very impressed with the way I was doing my cases and he recommended my name for elevation.”
“I get this fatherly affection from him and I am the only person he advises to please slow down, reduce (case) volume. He voices his concern and says that I am burning out,” Justice Venkatesh tells ThePrint.
On how he wants his time on the bench to be remembered, he adds: “I don’t want Justice Kaul to think that he recommended or elevated the wrong person. I want him to feel satisfied for recommending me as a judge.”
Outside of the courtroom, Justice Venkatesh is a family man who calls his pet shih tzu Vela his guru, and in an article credited the dog for giving him unconditional love which he said altered his outlook on various issues. “For instance, my attempt to understand the LGBTQIA+ issue is a result of this changed perspective and without any hesitation, I must confess that Vela has indeed shown a light on my appreciation of all that is life,” he wrote.
He adds that it is a challenge to follow other passions — cricket, music, fitness — while ensuring that the authority vested in him does not get to his head. “Mind is a monkey and one needs to be grounded and I hope I continue to remain grounded,” Justice Venkatesh tells ThePrint.
‘He can take a bull by its horns’
As for his peers, they believe Justice Venkatesh is on the right path. Referring to him as a “crusader judge with a vision”, former Madras High Court judge Justice V. Parthiban says about Justice Venkatesh: “I was very happy about how he is able to do it with a lot of conviction. Normally you don’t take a bull by its horns but this man is able to do it.”
On how the allocation of the MP/MLA cases portfolio to Justice Venkatesh sent ripples across political circles in Tamil Nadu, Parthiban adds, “That kind of fear should be there. Politicians think they are not accountable to anyone. I am happy that politicians are not being allowed to take the support of the system. We need to build a perception among the public that people must be accountable to judicial audits, irrespective of who they are.”
According to Parthiban, criticism of Justice Venkatesh by the political class came as no surprise. “Politicians always indulge in mudslinging. The moment a decision comes in their favour they appreciate the judiciary and when it is against them they accuse the court and say that they will go to the people’s court. Between the two, the judge and the politician, whom would you believe more? For a politician can’t see anything beyond power. For them retention of power is the most important thing.”
In August last year, DMK organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi had accused Justice Venkatesh of following a “pick and choose” policy after the latter took up suo motu revision of the acquittal and discharge of DMK leaders.
Asked about the allegations, Parthiban said Justice Venkatesh is not one-sided and even if he were, he would be “on the side of justice”. For a judge to fearlessly take up suo motu cases he needs to have impeccable honesty, adds Parthiban.
“It shows honesty, conviction and courage and all judges must have these standard qualities.”
Justice Venkatesh’s years on the bench
Explaining what sets Justice Venkatesh apart from other judges, Pinto says he “undertook the unprecedented step of going for psychological counselling himself to understand the nativity of the (LGBTQIA+) issue”.
“That is something which I think is unheard of in the Indian judiciary; for somebody to actually introspect to such an extent to go public with that introspection,” Pinto tells ThePrint.
Why did he feel the need to understand the LGBTQIA+ community better? Justice Venkatesh says: “It would have been a lie if I had said I’m very concerned about them without even understanding what they were going through. The truth was that my opinion about them was on a par with the view held by society. I told them that I don’t know what you are undergoing because I have never had any such feelings or friends like that. The society in which I live has always sort of insulted them. So I carry that subconsciously with me and never have any questions about them. But the case gave me an opportunity to know, go through counselling etc.”
He adds that the LGBTQIA+ community has always been discriminated against, insulted, and misunderstood. “I thought I had been given a constitutional post to take care of this and I wanted to do my best.”
Justice Venkatesh says another case that left an impact on him was the 2015 Gokulraj murder. In June 2015, V. Gokulraj, a Dalit engineering graduate was murdered on the mere suspicion that he was romantically involved with a caste Hindu girl. His headless body was found by the railway track in Namakkal district a day after the murder.
In June last year, a two-judge bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices Venkatesh and M.S. Ramesh upheld the life imprisonment handed down to the eight accused by the Madurai special sessions court, while altering the sentences of two other accused to imprisonment of five years.
“I continuously try to do something. Add one brick every time. I cannot build a building till the society changes itself. So I am trying to add one brick each time I get a chance,” the judge tells ThePrint.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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