Justice Muralidhar, a judge who never flinched from giving bold judgements

Justice S Muralidhar, who led the Delhi High Court bench on Wednesday to put the Delhi police on the mat for violence in the city, is known as a pro-citizen judge, who never flinched in speaking his mind in favour of rights and liberty.

The third senior-most judge in the HC, he has already been recommended for transfer to Punjab and Haryana High Court, where he is likely to take over as chief justice in a few months.

As a judge of the High Court, he has delivered bold judgements, including decriminalising homosexuality in the Naz Foundation case, holding members of UP's 16 Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel guilty in 1986 Hashimpura killings of 42 people in Meerut and convicting Congress leader and former MP Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

He was the judge, who stayed the transit remand against activist Gautam Navalakha when the Pune police arrested him in Elgar-Parishad case. He was also a part of the bench which ruled for allowing RTI plea on disclosure of assets of Supreme Court judges in 2010.

It is no surprise that when Supreme Court's Collegium recommended for his transfer to Punjab and Haryana HC, the Delhi High Court Bar Association condemned the move in very strong terms and gave a call for abstaining the work.

Justice Muralidhar was appointed as judge of the Delhi HC in 2006. He began his practice as a lawyer in Chennai in 1984. Three years later, he shifted to Delhi where he continued to argue for several public causes in the Delhi HC and the Supreme Court. He worked pro-bono for Bhopal gas victims and those displaced by the Narmada dam. Justice Muralidhar's wife Usha Ramanathan is a well-known activist and was associated with anti-Aadhaar campaign.