Above: Justice J Chelameswar

Justice J Chelameswar, who held press conference along with three other judges of the Supreme Court raising questions on the allocation of benches in sensitive cases such as Judge Loya and others, retires today.

In the unprecedented step, Chelameswar had held a press conference on January 12, 2018 along with Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph creating a stir in the Judiciary and the political circles.

Reports said that Chelameswar has already vacated his official bungalow.

Born on June 23, 1953 at Pedda Muttevi in Moksha division of Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Chelameswar’s early education took place in the Hindu High School of Machilipatnam in Krishna district. He did graduation in Physics from Loyola College, Chennai. He passed the law degree in 1976 from Andhra University and became the Judge of the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011.

In the last days of his service, Justice Chelameswar in an important judgement ordered former cricketer and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 in a road rage case by holding Sidhu guilty under Section 323 of the IPC.

Sidhu was accused of manhandling an elderly person and after manhandling Sidhu had fled with the keys of the car belonging to the elderly person. As a consequence, the elderly person was taken to the hospital in a rickshaw. After that, the health of the elderly person deteriorated and ultimately he died due to heart attack.

—India Legal Bureau