Ananga Kumar Patnaik (born 3 June 1949) is an Indian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and a former judge of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

Early life and education

Patnaik was born on 3 June 1949. He is the son of Gopal Chandra Patnaik, an Indian businessman and Shantilata Patnaik. He did his schooling from

Rajkumar College, Raipur Rajkumar College (or RKC) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, is one of the oldest K-12 foundations of India. It was founded by Sir Andrew Fraser in the year 1882 at Jabalpur. The School functioned at Jabalpur till 1892 and thereafter, shifted to its presen ...

and graduated from

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

with honours in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. He then pursued his

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree from

Madhusudan Law College Madhusudan Law University formerly Madhusudan Law College is the oldest Law Institute (now a university) of the State of Odisha. The college is situated at Municipal Colony in Cuttack in the Indian state of Odisha. It offers 3 years LL.B.(Hons ...

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literall ...

. He was selected by the Rotary Foundation in Group Study Exchange Programme in 1976 and went to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States for study of institutions of America and its people.

Legal practice

He enrolled with the State Bar Council of Orissa in the year 1974. As an advocate, he practiced in the High Court of Orissa, and subordinate courts & tribunals in the state. He also appeared in several matters before the Supreme Court of India. He has specialized in

commercial law Commercial law, also known as mercantile law or trade law, is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and business engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade, and sales. It is often considered to be a branc ...

and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

. From 1989 to 1990, he was the standing counsel for Orissa State Road Transportation Corporation and also the senior standing counsel for Commercial Tax Department of the

Government of Orissa The government of the Indian state of Odisha and its 30 districts consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Odisha, a judiciary, and a legislative branch. Like other states in India, the head of state of Odisha is the Governor, appoi ...

between 1990 and 1994.

Judgeship

He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Orissa on 13 January 1994. Subsequently, on 7 February 1994, he was transferred to the

Gauhati High Court The Gauhati High Court was promulgated by governor general of India on 1 March 1948 after the '' Government of India Act 1935'' was passed. Establishing the High Court of Assam with effect from 5 April 1948, for the then Province of Assam. It ...

as an Additional Judge. He was made a permanent judge (puisne judge) of the Gauhati High Court in 1995. In 2002 he was transferred to the High Court of Orissa, where he subsequently became the senior most puisne judge of Orissa's High Court. In that capacity he served as the Executive Chairman of the Orissa State Legal Services Authority, which provides legal aid to petitioners in the State of Orissa. He became Chief Justice of the High Court of Chhattisgarh on 14 March 2005. He was praised by the then

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...

Ramesh Chandra Lahoti Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1 November 1940 – 23 March 2022) was the 35th Chief Justice of India, serving from 1 June 2004 to 1 November 2005. Education and early career He joined the Bar in Guna district in 1960 and enrolled as an advocate in ...

for his role in the running of Chhattisgarh High Court. Later that year he became Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, serving there for four years. During his tenure as the Chief Justice of both these states he was known for his bold judgements and was seen to be a judge who was pro poor and strongly supported the underprivileged classes. On 17 November 2009, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India which he served till his retirement on 2 June 2014. After retirement he was offered the post of chairman of Odisha State Human Rights Commission which he refused as he wanted to stay in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. He was nominated by the then Chief Justice of India as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee. He was also nominated by the CJI who is the ex-officio President of

Indian Law Institute The Indian Law Institute (ILI) is a Deemed University and socio-legal research institute, founded in 1956. Established in New Delhi, primarily with the objective of promoting and conducting legal research, education and training. The objectiv ...

, as the Chairman of the Committee on “Constitutional Law and Allied Subjects” for the project of the Indian Law Institute on Restatement of Indian Law.

Notable work

He was a member of the "In-House Committee" to probe into the allegations made against Justice

Soumitra Sen Soumitra Sen is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court. He was the first judge in independent India whose removal motion was passed in Rajya Sabha for misappropriation of funds. History He was born on 22 January 1958. He passed the High Scho ...

. The committee concluded that

was guilty of misconduct and misconduct disclosed is so serious that it calls for initiation of proceedings for his removal.

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

accepted the motion of

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

against him. He resigned ahead of similar impeachment motion against him in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

. He was a part of the bench which on 27 February 2012 ordered the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

to implement the ambitious interlinking of rivers project in a time-bound manner and appointed a high-powered committee for its planning and implementation. On 16 March 2012, he became a part of a special two-judge bench (constituted by

Justice S H Kapadia) for hearing all cases arising out of

2G spectrum case The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government India were involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that provi ...

. On 26 October 2018 Supreme Court of India ordered a Central Vigilance Commissioner inquiry under his supervision against CBI Director Alok Verma.

Honours

In March 2012, Patnaik was conferred with the degree of

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

''(

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

)'' by the

Utkal University Utkal University (UU) is a Public university in Bhubaneswar, Khordha district, Khordha, Odisha, and is the oldest university in Odisha, the state, and the 17th-oldest university in India. It is a teaching-cum-affiliating university. The pre ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patnaik, Ananga Kumar 1949 births Living people Justices of the Supreme Court of India Judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Judges of the Orissa High Court Judges of the Gauhati High Court Chief Justices of Chhattisgarh High Court 20th-century Indian judges 20th-century Indian lawyers 21st-century Indian judges