FAREWELL ADDRESS OF THIRU.P.S.RAMAN, ADVOCATE GENERAL OF TAMILNADU TO THE HON’BLE JUSTICE THIRU.R.SUBRAMANIAN ON 24th JULY 2025

FAREWELL ADDRESS OF THIRU.P.S.RAMAN, ADVOCATE GENERAL OF TAMILNADU TO THE HON’BLE JUSTICE THIRU.R.SUBRAMANIAN ON

24th JULY 2025

 

My Lord! The Hon’ble Chief Justice

Other Hon’ble Judges of the Madras High Court

Friends and Family Members of the Hon’ble Justice Thiru.R.Subramanian  

Learned Additional Solicitor General Thiru.A.R.L.Sundaresan

Learned Additional Advocates General – Thiruvalargal

      1. M.Ajmal Khan

      2. Veera Kathiravan

      3. Haja Nazirudeen

      4. P.Kumaresan

      5. R.Baskaran

      6. J.Ravindran

      7. R.Ramanlaal

      8. K.Chandramohan

      9. M.Suresh kumar

    10. R.Neelakandan

    11. P.Muthukumar

Learned State Public Prosecutor Thiru. Hasan Mohamed Jinnah

Learned State Government Pleader Thiru. A.Edwin Prabakar

Learned Government Pleader, Madurai Thiru P.Thilak Kumar

Learned Government Law Officers of Tamil Nadu at the Principal Bench and

Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court

Learned Public Prosecutor of Puducherry Thiru. K.S. Mohandass

Learned Government Pleader of Puducherry Thiru. S. Raveekumar

Learned Government Law Officers of Puducherry and the Law Officers of

Union of India

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Thiru. P.S.Amalraj and Thiru.V.Karthikeyan, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

Thiru. S. Prabhakaran, Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council of India

Thiru. M. Baskar, President of Madras Bar Association

Thiru. G.Mohanakrishnan, President of Madras High Court Advocates Association

Tmt. N.S.Revathy, President of Women Lawyers Association

Thiru. P. Selvaraj, President of the Law Association

and other office bearers of the respective Associations

 

Thiru. Isaac Mohanlal, President of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association, (MMBA), Madurai

Thiru.Andiraj, President, Madurai Bench High Court Advocate Association (MBHAA), Madurai

 

Thiru.M.K.Suresh, President, Madurai Bar Association of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court

Thiru. V. Ramakrishnan, President of Madras High Court Madurai Bench Advocates Association, (MAHAA), Madurai

Ms. J. Anandavalli, President of Women Advocates Association, Madurai

Other office bearers of the respective Associations

Tmt.S.Alli, Registrar General, The Officers and the Staff of the Registry of Madras High Court at the Principal Seat and its Bench at Madurai

Fellow Senior Advocates and Beloved Advocates

Representatives of the Electronic and Print Media

Viewers watching the proceedings online

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

 

 

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600 004. This is the pin code for Mylapore. For those unfamiliar with the terrain, Mylapore is a cultural, commercial and residential part of Central Chennai. When I welcomed the Hon’ble Chief Justice the day before yesterday, I had mentioned that Madarassipattinam is a few centuries old. This is factually correct, but Mylapore precedes that. It has to be, because the famous Kapaleeshwar Temple itself dates back almost 2000 years from the remains of the old temple, while the new one itself is over 400 years old. To top that, the Church of our Lady of Light, popularly called Luz Church, was itself built by the Portugese almost 550 years back. These are two landmarks out of several which Mylapore can boast of.

This is another relatively unknown landmark in the heart of Mylapore, diagonally opposite the Thirumailai MRTS station. It is a quiet road, more a dead-end lane with about 40 houses. It is called Pelathope. Remember this name when I start narrating the life and times of this evening’s hero, my friend Justice R Subramanian, who is retiring at midnight today. The reason why I emphasise midnight is in case any of you think he is no longer a Judge after his reply to the farewell address, watch out. He can still commit you for contempt till midnight, as he was born on 25th July, 1963 at Manangadu Village in Thanjavur District, yet another product of this rice belt. However, one has to bear in mind that the Tanjore District of the 1960s was one vastly expansive area covering a better part of Southern Tamil Nadu until it was fragmented in later years. My own alleged native place near Mayavaram in Tanjore, is today in Nagapattinam District.

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Those born on 25th July come under the English star sign “Leo”, which incidentally is also the name of my second attempt as an author. If you go to the AI overview on what is the personality of a Leo, this is what it says – “Leos are bold, warm, and loving. They are also the ultimate performers. They can dazzle with the theatrical flair of a broadway star, and the charisma of a politician. They are captivating personalities. No matter how quickly they have just been introduced a topic, they can speak eloquently about anything.” If anybody has entered Court Hall 2 in the last few months, every one of these characteristics will stand out, especially the bit about speaking eloquently about anything.

I thought I will pull Justice Subramanian’s leg by referring to some other celebrity who was born on the same day, because whenever I talk about my birthday 7th November, everybody around me will turn around and say “oh, same day as Kamal Hassan”. But even here, the Judge beat me. Believe me, he is the only celebrity born on 25th July. No wonder his parents, late Thiru KV Rajagopalan and Thirumathi R Saradambal, named their son after Lord Subramanian, or more popularly referred to in Tamil Nadu as Murugan, also called Skanda or Karthikeya in other parts of the country. All Subramanians in Tamil Nadu will either be called Mani or Subbu. This baby was called both by different sections of people. I myself belong to the Mani group, before much later when Subbu became more fashionable.

 

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Justice Subramanian not only hails from the rice belt, but is the son of a cultivating rice farmer, who was also an honorary member of the Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute, at Aduthurai. He did his schooling in Chennai, having studied at St Thomas’s High School and later on shifted back to Thanjavur to finish his 12th Standard from the Sir PS Sivaswamy Iyer Higher Secondary School at Thirukattupalli, an educational institution which the Learned Judge still takes care of for all its requirements. I have to keep saying some of these nice things before I pull his leg occasionally.

After graduating from AVVM Sri Pushpam College at Poondi in Commerce, another thing we have in common, his Lordship moved to a more exciting venue for his further studies in law. No prizes for guessing. Dr Ambedkar Government Law College at Pondicherry, between 1983 and 1986. It was here that I first met Justice Subramanian in December 1983 when my old friend Dr Justice Muralidhar and I came to his college to make the Madras Law College win the Phillip C. Jessup MOOT Court for the first time. We had quite a celebration, which included Justice V Parthiban. No more of that, though coincidentally, many many moons later, both of you got elevated together.

Now comes Pelathope, which has been renamed Vedantha Desikar Swamy Street. Can you believe that this small lane in Mylapore has produced 8 Judges of the Madras High Court, starting with the venerable Justice AV Vishwanatha Shastri, the latest being our hero himself. The others were Vishwanatha Shastri’s son Justice V Ratnam former Chief

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Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court and in many ways a father figure to Justice Subramanian, Justice V Sethuraman (former Chief Justice of Madras), Justice MM Ismail (former Chief Justice of Madras), Justice Chitra Venkataraman, Justice GR Jagadeesan and Justice N Dinakar. All this gives one an unearthly impression whether one believes in vasthu or not, that this place has got to have some kind of energy which makes even google describe it as a favoured location for aspiring lawyers seeking proximity to the High Court. So, into Pelathope walked this young man, after enrolling as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on 10th September 1986.

His Lordship joined in the stable of the legendary MS Venkatram Iyer, a doyen of the Madras Bar. Shri V Krishnan, son of the legend, and himself a hugely lawyer, took the young lad under his wings.

It was at this time that our interactions became much more. I was myself only 2 years senior in the Bar, and my chamber was number 57, while his was 33. He was extremely popular with his colleagues, who all had christened him with a prefix to his name showing their affection. He was a regular fixture in the Civil Appellate side courts as well as the Writ Courts. He was equally conversant with trial work on the Civil side thanks to his early grooming by his senior. I do not remember if his Lordship did any work on the Criminal side, but knowing his panache for law, I am sure he would have excelled in that as well.

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Our friendly banter in the corridors and in the chambers while still enthusiastically pursuing our careers made those times very special. One matter where both Justice Subramanian’s office and mine were involved working together was the famous full bench judgement in the case of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, reported in 1989 2 LW 381, where this court finally ruled that in matters of land acquisition, it is the state alone which has the right to challenge the reference and the award, and not the authority for whose benefit the acquisition was made.

So high was his Lordship’s eminence in Civil law that when the High Court formed a committee in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Justice E Padmanabhan to discuss amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, he was a natural choice as its member. Apart from his felicity at court, he was also very good at imparting knowledge and was a regular resource person to the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy. He remained so even after his elevation to the Madras High Court, something that was made possible by none other than our then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who was an outstanding talent scout when it comes to judicial appointments.

The swearing in held in the new auditorium on the morning of 5th October 2016 was truly a mela. In addition to your Lordship, 14 other judges were sworn in by Chief Justice Kaul. Justice Parthiban was your senior, and he retired a few years back, while amongst the rest of the 12, we still have in this court sitting in front of me or on VC from Madurai,

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Justice M Sundar, Justice R Suresh Kumar, Justice J Nisha Banu, Justice MS Ramesh, Justice SM Subramaniam, Justice Anita Sumanth, Justice P Velmurugan and Justice CV Karthikeyan. It was truly a long day and having done enough speeches this last week or so, I am imagining the plight of my predecessor Thiru R Muthukumaraswamy, God Bless his soul.

Theodore Roosevelt, the former President of the USA, while speaking about his foreign policy approach, said “speak softly and carry a big stick.” I had used this expression for describing one of the judges of this court on her farewell. In the case of Justice R Subramanian, this has to be amended to say “speak strongly, carry a big stick on one hand and an olive branch in the other.” That about epitomises the Learned Judge when he ascended the bench. Whether as a junior Judge in a Bench in his initial stint, or during his long stint as a Single Judge, and again as a senior Judge presiding over a Division Bench, Justice R Subramanian was extremely vocal. While he did carry a big stick which he would even use occasionally, being otherwise the soft-hearted human being that he is, he would extend the other arm carrying the peace offering of the olive branch. Lawyers attending his court have got to be well prepared or face the wrath, but at the same time never get offended because the admonition came from a spirit of pushing the counsel to better performance.

A very peremptory analysis of the hundreds of reported judgements given by his Lordship would reflect the spectrum of fields his legalese had touched. Justice R Subramanian as a Judge handling Civil matters was

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clearly the master of the court, for his enormous knowledge in that field was palpable even as a lawyer. His equal proficiency in Administrative Law was not a matter of doubt. However, towards the fag end of his term when his Lordship sat in the Division Bench dealing with service matters, was when his ability to grasp any law and master it in no time, came to the fore. It was during this period where as Advocate General I had to spend many hours each day in Court number 3 and later Court number 2, debating on dearness allowance, pay fixation, inter-se seniority and regularisation of service and such other aspects of service law. Yes, the Advocate General was spending almost 70% of judicial time purely on service matters, and when I discussed this malady with my predecessor Vijay Narayan, he upped his percentage to 80%. But doing this branch in Justice R Subramanian’s court gave it a different twist and I do cherish those moments, despite my inexcusable diffidence for service jurisprudence. The last important case I did before your Lordship’s bench was the interesting batch of cases relating to the Career Advancement Scheme in polytechnic and engineering colleges.

As is customary, let me give a sampler of his Lordship’s judicial pronouncements.

I will begin with 3 full Benches which your Lordship presided over.

1.   In Suraj Lal v. Pradeep Stainless India & Ors., where arising out of a perceived conflict of opinions between 2 Division Benches, Your

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Lordships answered a reference on the issue of whether an order granting leave under Clause 12 to institute a suit in the Madras High Court can be said to be an order passed under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 and also whether the order refusing to revoke leave can be construed as such. Your Lordship held such orders to be ones under the Commercial Courts Act and therefore held the appeals were not maintainable.

2.   Once again, arising out of divergent views taken by two Division Benches, the full bench presided over by your lordship decided through the voice of Justice PT Asha in the case of D Bright Joseph v. Church of South India, on the question of maintainability of petitions under Article 226 against CSI in respect of matters relating to its domestic elections. Your lordship upheld the writ on the ground that CSI was exercising certain functions which were of public character. When the Supreme Court left this legal point open without interfering with your order, Your Lordship sitting in a Division Bench wrote that the Writ would not lie under all circumstances, but only where there was some statutory or public element involved. This is a very rare character to possess.

3.   The most recent Full Bench of Your Lordship is the case of M Sivappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, where your Lordships were concerned with the issue relating to regularisation of temporary employees of the State Government. Your Lordships held that persons who were

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employed in any of the 86 categories mentioned in the Special Rules for Tamil Nadu Basic Service could be regularised on meeting certain conditions, and that the same would not be violative of the constitution bench judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Uma Devi.

4.   As a Division Bench, another interesting case Your Lordship decided was P Pappu v. The Sub-Registrar, where you held that the SRO cannot invoke Rule 55A of the Tamil Nadu Registration Rules to refuse registrations indiscriminately. Your Lordship commented on the difficulties of the common man in obtaining original documents or non-traceability certificates. It is to your credit that several months later I lost before the Supreme Court where the Apex Court agreed with your viewpoint and struck down Rule 55A itself as ultra vires the Registration Act.

5.   In the case of Abbotsbury Owners Association v. the Member Secretary, your Lordship decided on the issue of whether the building owner can sell the common area. You held that the builders tried to take advantage of the mistake in calculation of the undivided share and sell the common area, and that the builders cannot exploit the mistake to make flat purchasers pay for unsold portions.

6.   In the case S Muruganandam v. J Joseph, your lordship found that there were lots of unresolved issues arising from rent control matters. Specifically, it was on the question of whether eviction

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proceedings could be entertained in cases concerning oral tenancies or written instruments created before the 2017 Rent Control Act. Your Lordship classified the cases into 6 categories and held that only ones falling under 3 of them would be maintainable and that the other 3 should fail.

7.   Lastly, we also have Justice.R.Subramanian to thank for keeping our beaches for the residents of Chennai and not descending into becoming a mere site of protest for worthy or unworthy causes.  For it was he who as a Junior Judge with Justice.K.K.Sasidharan (Government of Tamilnadu vs P.Ayyakannu) wrote that the right to protest cannot be unrestricted and “the right not to listen to should also be taken into account”.

I must readily admit that my entire office team spent the last few days poring over your judgements and it was a battle for me to choose just 6. This presentation hardly does any credit to your extraordinary performance as a judge of this charter high court, and I crave your forgiveness if any special ruling of yours has not found a place. It is like how Bumrah does not find a place in the Playing 11 (for strategic reasons) despite being the world’s best fast bowler.

The disposal statistics of the Learned Judge is simply staggering. In his stint in both the Principal Bench as well as the Madurai bench, either in a Division Bench or sitting singly, over his almost 9 years of service, he has disposed of 14991 number of main cases and 22427 number of

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miscellaneous cases. It is a medallion he can proudly wear throughout his life.

On the administrative side, Justice R Subramanian has been of great help to succeeding Chief Justices as he was a part of several important committees. I would in particular refer to his stints in the Administrative Committee, the Judicial Services Appointments Committee and the High Court Building Committee where he has contributed immensely. A specific mention should be made of what he, in association with Justice Suresh Kumar, Justice PT Asha and Justice N Mala, with the able assistance of Senior Advocate NL Rajah from the Heritage Committee, and the engineering staff did in the renovation of this heritage building, it is something legendary. Seeing is believing. What they collectively did was opening up the corridors of justice and additionally making them corridors of beauty. Not content with the main building, his Lordship also took it upon himself to build the canteen for the staff of the High Court and others behind the City Civil Court building, and also make provisions for the establishment of a TUCS depot to supply provisions at affordable prices.

Your Lordship has been an integral part of this High Court since 1986, and quite definitely a great brother to your companion judges since 2016. The former can be gauged by this large turnout for this occasion today which includes several retired Judges whose life you have touched and the latter is palpable from the number of glowing tributes that have been paid to you from your brothers and sisters on the bench. It is no understatement

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to say that your benign presence and sense of humour will be sorely missed by one and all.

         Finally, as we head to the last over, let me exhort you not to keep looking at the great past. Of course, reminiscing of them now and then is acceptable by all accounts, but as Harold McMillan the former Prime Minister of UK said after he demitted office, I quote “Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard and not a sofa.”

          I had been guilty of reducing one of your colleagues to become too emotional after my farewell, and in your case, I can only use the words of Dr Seuss when he said don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

On behalf of a very grateful Bar of the Madras High Court and its Madurai Bench, I wish you every happiness and health in your retirement. Knowing your panache, I can safely state that you will now have all the time to love all – don’t get me wrong, I meant to start your score for your next tennis game.

Fare thee well my friend, may I conclude by borrowing the title of a song by the famous rock band Pink Floyd, about missing one of their band members, as I too will miss you on a personal level – “Shine on you crazy diamond”.

Jai Hind.