Third senior-most judge of the Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph retires. Justice Kurian Josep, was one of the four senior judges to have conducted an unprecedented January 12 presser mounting a virtual revolt against the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
Along with Justices Ranjan Gogoi, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur, he had raised questions on “selective” allocation of cases, including the sensitive case of special CBI judge B H Loya, who died on December 1, 2014. Justice Gogoi is presently the Chief Justice of India and Justice Chelameswar retired in June this year.
On Thursday, bar leaders bid adieu to Justice Joseph by terming him as one of the most “popular” judges in recent times with a “pleasant smile” and urged Justice Gogoi to replace him a judge having similar smile. Justice Joseph had extensively volunteered at two relief collection drives organised by lawyers in Delhi after Kerala faced one of its worst floods in a 100 years during August this year.
Justice Kurian Joseph, who will turn 65 on November 30, was part of the five- judge bench which by a majority of 3:2 had ruled the practice of divorce through triple talaq among Muslims as “void”, “illegal” and “unconstitutional.
Born on November 30, 1953 in Kerala, he had his early education at St. Joseph’s U.P. school at Kalady in Ernakulam district and attained his law degree from Kerala Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. Justice Joseph, who began practising in the Kerala High Court from 1979, was appointed as an Additional Advocate General in 1994 and was designated as a senior advocate in 1996.
He assumed office as a judge in the Kerala High Court on July 12, 2000 and served as the Acting Chief Justice of the high court twice. He was later appointed as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court on February 8, 2010.
Justice Joseph was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on March 8, 2013
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