Madras high court gets one more judge

CHENNAI: Additional advocate general B Pugalendhi has been appointed as the additional judge of the Madras high court.
His appointment was cleared by the President’s office on Saturday. With his elevation, the strength of the high court has touched 60 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 75.
Though Pugalendhi’s name had been recommended much earlier, his appointment had been delayed by at least five months as the Supreme Court collegium had received ‘certain adverse but unconfirmed inputs against him’.
He was supposed to have appointed on June 1 along with seven other judges.
Pugalendhi, who is currently additional advocate general for the Madurai bench of the court, has over 25 years of experience in the bar.
The high court, which had 63 judges in its stable till November 12, lost three judges in the past one week including the second senior most judge Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh.
Justice Ramesh was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh high court, while Justice Satrughana Pujahari was transferred back to Orissa high court, which is his parent high court.
The third judge Justice S Baskaran attained superannuation on November 16.