India
Justice Kuldip Singh, SC’s first green judge, passes away | India News – Times of India
Judge Kuldip Singh (file photo)
NEW DELHI: No one has left behind as clear and effective a judicial legacy on environmental issues as Judge Kuldip Singhreferred to as the first ‘green right‘ of the Supreme Court. He retired in December 1996, but the two environmental cases involving pollution and forests, which he handled with aplomb, continue to be heard by two green benches of the SC to this day.
Judge Singh passed away on Tuesday at the age of 92. He is survived by two sons, Paramjit Singh Patwalia and Deepinder Singh Patwalia, both reputed senior lawyers, and two daughters – Simran and Chandana.
Born in Jhelum, now Pakistan, in 1932, Singh graduated in law from the University of Punjab and became a lawyer in November 1959 before starting practice in the Punjab HC. However, he continued to teach law part-time at the Punjab Univ Law College until 1971. He was appointed Advocate General of Punjab in 1987, the year he moved to Delhi after being appointed Additional Advocate General.
He was appointed judge of the SC on December 14, 1988. Though his name was before AM Ahmadi in the order of oath-taking, on the day of oath-taking, he was informed by the then CJI RS Pathak that he would take oath after Justice Ahmadi. This change in order meant that Justice Ahmadi would become CJI in October 1994, after Justice MN Venkatachaliah.
Had Justice Singh been sworn in before Ahmadi, he would have been CJI from October 1994 to December 1996 and Justice Ahmadi’s tenure as CJI would have been reduced to just three months. When Justice Singh discovered the change in the order of taking oath, he had initially refused to take oath as a judge of the SC but did so after being pacified by the then CJI.
As a judge of the SC, he heard with great interest two cases, one of which was filed by environmentalists MC Mehta in 1985 to protect the Taj Mahal from industrial and vehicular pollution, which was already causing a yellowing effect on the white marble monument, and the other by TN Godavarman Thirumulpad in 1995 for declaring sandalwood trees as a protected environment.
The zeal with which he activated the lethargic administration for the protection of the monument and curbing pollution in the Taj Trapezium area and used the other case to protect forests and check mindless felling of trees across the country, earned him the nickname ‘green judge’. These two cases are still pending in the SC docket and are now being heard by two different benches headed by Justices BR Gavai and AS Oka.
