Former Supreme Court Judge Justice AR Lakshmanan Passes Away

Ex-Judge of the Apex Court Justice AR Lakshmanan passed away on Thursday at a private hospital in Tiruchy. He was 78. Doctors who were treating him for age-related ailments said that a sudden cardiac arrest on Thursday morning caused his death. It was only on Aug 24 that his wife Meenakshi Aachi died in Tiruchy & the family was still grieving.

Justice Lakshmanan is survived by 2 sons ARL Arunachalam & ARL Sundaresan & 2 daughters Umayal & Saravanavalli.  ARL Sundaresan is a senior advocate practising at the High Court of Madras.

The funeral rites were performed in his native village of Devakottai in Sivagangai district, said, family members.

Justice Lakshman Arunachalam was born on March 22, 1942, & graduated from the Madras Law College. He had served as a government pleader for the Tamil Nadu Govt & also represented several banks prior to his elevation as permanent Judge of the Madras HC on June 14, 1990.

Justice Lakshmanan served at the Top Court from Dec 20, 2002, to March 21, 2007. Before his elevation, he was a Judge at the Madras HC & the Kerala HC. He also served as Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh & Rajasthan HC's.

Post-retirement, he was appointed Chairman of the Eighteenth Law Commission of India.

Remembering the SC Judge, Senior Advocate P Wilson said Lakshmanan was part of a committee appointed by the Supreme Court in the inter-state Mullaiperiyar dam issue.

He was also part of the bench which gave relief to 2.5 lakh Govt employees who were dismissed by J Jayalalithaa invoking the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act in 2003.

Wilson also recollected that Lakshmanan while serving as the chairman of the Union Law Commission recommended the establishment of Regional Benches of the Supreme Court in 4 zones of the country including one at Chennai.

"His fondness towards Tamil literature & culture is immense. It is a great loss to the legal fraternity & the people of the state," he further emphasized.

Tamil Nadu Advocates Association president & senior advocate S Prabakaran who worked closely with the Supreme Court judge recalls that the judge was very friendly & maintained a cordial relationship with the bar.

He further said that ARL, as he is fondly called, was also the first to push for effective laws to ban public smoking in the country during his stint at the Supreme Court.

During a women's day function at the advocates association, his speech was impressive as he had all the facts & figures pertaining to women in each state in detail, reminisced Prabhakaran. 

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