Full Court Reference held to bid farewell to Chief Justice L.Narayana Swamy

Shimla : A Full Court Reference was held today in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh to bid farewell to the Chief Justice Mr. L.Narayana Swamy, who demitted the office today, on superannuation. Mr. Justice Lingappa Narayana Swamy was born on 1st July 1959 at Bhadravathi in Shivamogga District, Karnataka. He had his schooling at Paper Town, Bhadravathi. He did Pre-University at B B S College, Shivamogga and B.A., LL.M from Mysore University. He enrolled as an Advocate during the year 1987 with the Karnataka State Bar Council, Bengaluru and practised in the High Court on Writ Petitions, Service Matters, Land Reforms, Land Revenue and PIL. He worked as High Court Government Pleader from 1995 to 1999. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Karnataka on 04-07-2007 and permanent Judge on 17-04-2009. He was the Acting Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court from 18-01-2019 to 10-05-2019 and was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on 06-10-2019.The Registrar General Virender Singh conducted the proceedings.Speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice Mr. L. Narayana Swamy thanked all for their cooperation and support and said that the cooperation extended by the bar and the Registry of the High Court was beyond his expectations and with their help he was able to make a little contribution to the development of law and justice of the State.On this occasion, Mr. Justice Ravi Malimath, the Acting Chief Justice-designate said that Chief Justice Mr. L. Narayana Swamy made very significant contributions through his judgments and under his able guidance lot of work was undertaken in the State, to ensure that people are protected during the pandemic.

He said that during the tenure of Chief Justice, three Fast Track Special Courts were created at Shimla, Kinnaur at Rampur Bushahr and Sirmaur at Nahan and the Court of Civil Judge, Thunag was also inaugurated. He also said that various constructions for the Court buildings were carried on even in the remote areas in the State during the tenure of Chief Justice. He said that Mr. Justice Narayana Swamy has a deep sense of commitment towards the downtrodden and weaker sections of the society and he did his very best for their upliftment.Ashok Sharma, Advocate General, Ajay Kochhar, Chairman, Bar Council of Himachal Pradesh, Nareshwar Singh Chandel, President, H.P. High Court Bar Association Balram Sharma, Assistant Solicitor General of India also spoke on the occasion and extended their best wishes to outgoing Chief Justice Mr. L.Narayana Swamy. They said that Justice Swamy believed that temple of justice should not be closed, even during the pandemic. He made efforts to start virtual hearing and probably H.P. High Court was the first High Court to start the virtual hearing when the pandemic started in the year 2020.Chief Justice Mr. L.Narayana Swamy was presented Guard of Honour after the Full Court Reference. Mr. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Mr. Justice Sureshwar Thakur, Mr. Justice Vivek Singh Thakur, Mr. Justice Ajay Mohan Goel,  Mr. Justice Sandeep Sharma, Mr. Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia, Mr. Justice Anoop Chitkara, Ms. Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua and  Mr. Justice Satyen Vaidya also attended the Full Court Reference.Registrar Vigilance Dr. Baldev Singh, Mukesh Bansal, Secretary, High Court Legal Services Committee, Registrar (Judicial) Vikas Bhardwaj, Registrar (Rules) Ajay Mehta, District & Sessions Judge (Leave/Training Reserve) Pawanjit Singh, CPC Mohit Bansal, Registrar Accounts Davinder Chopra, Registrar Establishment Poonam Mahajan and officers of the Registry were present on the occasion. Adhering to the instructions issued for containment of the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, only a limited number of persons were present on the occasion and the others joined the Full Court Reference through virtual platform.