Above: Justice R K Agrawal speaking on the farewell ceremony organized by SCBA in Supreme Court on May 4/Photo: Anil Shakya

Justice R K Agrawal retired from the Supreme Court on Thursday (May 4). Justice Agrawal joined the apex court on February 17, 2014.

Justice Rajesh Kumar Agrawal hails from Uttar Pradesh. He was born on May 5, 1953 and did his graduation in Law from Allahabad University.

He enrolled as Advocate on August 14, 1976 and joined the chamber of his father Sri Raja Ram Agrawal, Senior Advocate and former Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh on Civil side and dealt with Constitutional, Company, Service, Educational and Taxation matters.

Justice Agrawal worked as Standing Counsel of the Income Tax Department of the Government of India and also served a number of corporations and institutions as their Standing Counsel.

He was elevated as the permanent Judge of the Allahabad High Court on February 5, 1999. After that he served as Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court and became the Chief Justice of the same court on October 24, 2013. After that he was appointed as the Judge of the Supreme Court.

After Justice Indu Malhotra’s elevation to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court judges tally had gone to 25. But now with Justice Agrawal’s retirement, the tally has gone down to 24.

Justice Agrawal thanked everyone in his farewell speech. He thanked all his fellow judges and members of the Bar.

He said that for the speedy disposal of cases it was necessary that the Bar and the Bench should work cooperatively and it was important for the common man to have faith in the judiciary.

—India Legal Bureau