R Sudhakar

Justice R Sudhakar (also known as Ramalingam Sudhakar) is a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. He was born on 14 February 1959 and hails from Panapakkam Village, Vellore District in Tamil Nadu.

Education

Justice Sudhakar had his early schooling done in Don Bosco Matriculation School, Egmore, Chennai. He graduted from St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Madurai, completing his school education. During his school days, he was an active member of the Boy’s Scout movement. He graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a college degree. He actively participated in sports, social and cultural activities both in school and in college. He was conferred a Degree in Law from Madras Law College.

Career in law

Justice Sudhakar enrolled as an advocate and started practice as an associate of the senior advocate Mr.Habibullah Badsha, former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu and Public Prosecutor of Madras High Court.

Justice Sudhakar practised in all branches of law and specialized in the field of Customs, Central Excise and Sales Tax Law. Besides Madras High Court, he also practiced, appeared in cases before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka High Court and Kerala High Court. He regularly appeared in matters before the Supreme Court of India as well.

Judgeship

Justice Sudhakar was elevated to the Bench as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Madras on 10 December 2005 and as a Permanent Judge on 20 April 2007. In his career as a Judge of the Madras High Court spreading over a decade he decided 26196 Main Cases and 32943 Miscellaneous Cases. A number of judgments delivered by him are reported in various Law Journals. On 18 April 2016, he was appointed as a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. He was the Acting Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, from 15 March 2017 to 31 March 2017, after the retirement of former Chief Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar, until the appointment of the current Chief Justice, Hon’ble Sh. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed.

Family legacy

His father, Late Justice S.T.Ramalingam served as a Judge of the Madras High Court. Late S.P.Sri Ram, his maternal grandfather, served as a District Judge and retired as Chairman of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal.

He hails from a family actively involved in the Indian independence movement. His maternal great-grandfather late S.P.Ayyaswami Mudaliar, a well known Civil Engineer in the early twentieth century, was an active freedom fighter. During the years of 1939 and 1940 the family hosted several national leaders and freedom fighters at their house.