Orissa High Court gets a new Chief Justice

Orissa High Court gets a new Chief Justice

Justice S Muralidhar takes oath as the 32 Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

Justice S Muralidhar has taken oath as the new Chief Justice of Orissa High Court. He was sworn-in by Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal on 4 January at a simple ceremony held at Odisha Raj Bhavan, situated in the state capital Bhubaneswar.

Justice Muralidhar succeeds Justice Mohammad Rafiq, who was transferred as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

"Congratulations Justice Dr S Muralidhar on being appointed as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court. Welcome him to #Odisha and wish him a successful tenure," Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, using his Twitter handle. The Odisha chief minister could not attend the swearing-in ceremony due to health reasons. The state government was represented by the Law Minister Pratap Jena, Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra and senior police officers and bureaucrats. Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik was also among the dignitaries present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Justice Muralidhar, 59, was recently promoted as the Chief Justice. Until now, he was serving as a Judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Before that he served as a Judge at the Delhi High Court for almost 14 years.

He enrolled as an advocated and practiced in civil court in Chennai, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court in May 2006 and became a permanent Judge at the Delhi High Court in August 2007.

Justice Muralidhar entered the legal profession as an advocate in 1984 after finishing the Bachelor of Law (BL) from the University of Madras. He completed LLM, specializing in Constitutional and Administrative Law from Nagpur University in 1990 and was awarded PhD by the University of Delhi in 2003 for a doctoral programme entitled, Legal Aid and the Criminal Justice System in India.