1932- 2024 Justice Kuldip Singh: A green torchbearer & a judge extraordinaire

Born on January 1, 1932, justice Kuldip Singh is survived by his wife Prof Gurminder Kaur, illustrious sons Paramjit and Deepinder, daughters Simran and Chandana; and many grand and great grandchildren.

The demise of justice Kuldip Singh, an icon in the Indian legal and judicial firmament with qualities of head and heart, has come as a shock. The end came in the evening of November 25, 2024, a few months away from his 93rd birthday. I along with many of his friends used to wish him and actually believed that he would certainly cross the century-mark.

Justice Singh was highly qualified, having coveted letters like LLM (London) and Barrister-at-law from Lincoln’s Inn. (HT File)

Born on January 1, 1932, justice Kuldip Singh is survived by his wife Prof Gurminder Kaur, illustrious sons Paramjit and Deepinder, daughters Simran and Chandana; and many grand and great grandchildren.

Legal acumen

When I came back from England in 1981 after obtaining LLM, I joined the chamber of justice Singh in Sector 10, Chandigarh. He was extremely busy at the Bar and was known throughout the northern India for his expertise in service and constitutional law. He was equally at ease with all fields of law. The law journals bear adequate testimony of his legal acumen. His arguments would always be clear based on understanding of thousands of Supreme Court judgments which he would remember by heart. He would always be firm in his arguments and would not give up. He would not ever sermonise his associates and allowed everyone to develop and grow naturally. It was probably the result of his approach that a number of his associates achieved high positions. Late justice SS Nijjar was from the chamber of Justice Kuldip Singh, who adorned the bench of Supreme Court, and justice RS Mongia became chief justice of the Gauhati high court. He was very proud of all his associates.

Justice Singh was highly qualified, having coveted letters like LLM (London) and Barrister-at-law from Lincoln’s Inn. He was also president of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association. He took over as the advocate general, Punjab, in 1987 and was appointed as an additional solicitor general later that year. It was the second time in the judicial history of India that a member of the Bar was directly appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, a rare distinction (1988). Justice SM Sikri was the first one from the Bar. As a judge of the Supreme Court, he soon became known as a very hard-working judge. I saw him dictating judgments at 4 o’ clock early morning at his official bungalow at 6, Motilal Nehru Marg. His tenure brought the dawn of a new era.

Pioneer of environmental law

Justice Singh was pioneer of environmental law, and he soon became known as ‘Green Judge’. The development of environmental law led to the setting up of green benches in every high court. The industrial units were flushed out of residential areas of Delhi. Probably, it is justice Kuldip Singh’s endeavour which resulted in the setting up of the National Green Tribunal. He wrote a number of judgments of Constitution benches of five-judge, seven-judge and nine-judge. His contribution to the growth of law is beyond description, which can be seen from the perusal of judgments delivered in cases like Indira Sawhney vs UoI (1992)-nine-judge bench.

Congenial disposition

Justice Singh had a congenial disposition and was robustly built. He used to ignore small things and would refuse to fall sick. However, after his retirement in the late 90s, he underwent knee replacement surgery, rather reluctantly, and unfortunately some bone infection developed in one of the knees. As a result, few revision surgeries were undertaken but he could not get rid of the infection. For the rest of his life, he bravely fought infection by consuming one or the other antibiotics. It apparently dealt a huge blow to his health. Despite infection, he agreed to head the Delimitation Commission (2002), and the work of the commission was completed in record time. Another notable contribution is when he headed a tribunal to enquire as to how ‘shamlat deh’ land belonging to Punjab abutting the periphery of Chandigarh was converted into proprietary land. The interim report was published which named high and mighty who were involved in converting ‘shamlat deh’ land as proprietary land. The interim report submitted by the tribunal was published in a newspaper despite resistance from the high and mighty. The tribunal was not granted extension by the bench headed by the then acting chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana high court (2012) after I left to join as the chief justice of the high court of J&K.

The head and heart are full of memories of justice Singh in this hour of gloom. The only prayer that comes to one’s mind is that may God rest the noble soul in peace and grant the family and friends colossal strength to bear this irreparable loss.

mmkumar.j@gmail.com

The writer is a former chief justice of the J&K high court and founder president, National Company Law Tribunal. The views expressed are personal