M. M. Sundresh (born on 21 July 1962) is a 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 ...

. He previously served as a judge of the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

Early life

M. M. Sudresh was born in Erode on 21 July 1962. Sundresh had studied his schooling at Erode and he had completed his P.U.C (Pre University Course) at Erode. He had obtained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Loyola College, Chennai Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an auto ...

. Sundresh received a law degree from the

Madras Law College Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...

Advocate

Sundresh had registered his name in the roll of

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

s, in 1985 in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...

had appointed Sundresh as the counsel for the state government. He was working as government advocate from 1991 to 1996. Sundresh had appeared for the TNSSIDC (Corporation for the Development of Small Scale Industries) and practiced on all the fields of law at

. He had joined in the chamber of S. Sivasubramaniam. He also joined in the chamber of his father V. K. Muthusamy. He was selected to the RO System Monitoring Committee to watch the erection of ROS (Reverse Osmosis System) in Thiruppur District,

Karur Karur () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Karur is the administrative headquarters of Karur district. It is located on the banks of River Amaravathi, Kaveri and Noyyal. Karur is well known for the export of Home Textile products to ...

District and Erode District.

Judicial career

Sundresh was elevated to the

from the bar, on 31 March 2009. On 29 March 2011, his appointment was made permanent. Sundresh had participated in the inaugural function of the new building for

Mediation Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...

and

Conciliation Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process whereby the parties to a dispute use a conciliator, who meets with the parties both separately and together in an attempt to resolve their differences. They do this by lowering te ...

Lok Adalat Lok Adalat is a Statutory Organization under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, and was created as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism used in India to resolve disputes/grievances outside courts. It is a forum where cases pending ...

and

Arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

Center at the

premises, in the presence of the other administrative judges and judicial officers. He was elevated as a judge of the

on 26 August 2021 and took his oath on 31 August 2021.

Notable cases

Elephant poaching case

A division bench of Justices Sundresh and N. Sathish Kumar had ordered a

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...

probe into a series of elephant poaching incidents reported in the State. They also observed the network involved was cutting across boundaries. The court order was passed on the basis of the report submitted by the

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is a statutory body established by the Government of India under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to combat organised wildlife crime. The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006 prov ...

, which carried out an extensive study in this regard.

Netaji's photo in currency note case

Justices Sundresh and S Ananthi of the

has asked the central government to consider having

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

's photo on Indian currency notes. The bench lauded the sacrifices made by Netaji. Justices Sundresh and Ananthi said that Netaji's contribution towards the Indian freedom movement was unparalleled. The advocate for the

Union Government 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 ...

opposed the plea stating that it was not maintainable. At last, the bench had refused to allow the request of the petitioner.

EWS certificate case

A batch of petitions were filed by 'Akhila Bharatha Brahmin Association' and others seeking issuance of the income certificate for EWS. Justices M M Sundresh and R Hemalatha, of the

while hearing the case relating to the "

Economically Weaker Section Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in India is a subcategory of people having an annual family income less than and who do not belong to any category such as SC/ ST/ OBC across India, nor to MBC in Tamil Nadu. A candidate who does not fall under ...

Certificate (EWS Certificates)" had asked the Advocate General Vijay Narayan to know as to why such a condition that the certificate would be valid only for getting central government jobs and admissions in the centrally-run educational institutions, was laid down? Advocate General Vijay Narayan said it was for the

Central Government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

to clarify. Advocate for the

Tamil Nadu government Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, like ...

submitted to the High Court that the EWS certificate issued to the Economically Weaker Sections can be used only to apply for posts under the 10 per cent quota in Central Government jobs and educational institutions only.

RBI case

Justice Sundresh and Justice R Hemalatha, of the Madras High Court issued a notice to the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

(RBI). asking it to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed with the Court challenging. The Non-Performing Assets (NPA) norms set by the banking regulator was challenged by the Petitioner. in that Public Interest Litigation Petition, the Bench had ordered the RBI to file the Reply. In this case a direction was sought for from the Court to direct RBI to form a committee consisting of experts, stake-holders, bankers, economists and chartered accountants to re-look at the income-recognition and asset-classification norms currently in force and recommend a new set of norms.

Private complaint acquittal case

The full bench of Justices Sundresh, Bharathidasan, and Venkatesh have ruled that a challenge to an acquittal order passed by a Magistrate Court in private complaint should be filed before the High court and not before the

Sessions Court A Sessions Court or even known as the Court of Sessions Judge is a court of law which exists in several Commonwealth countries. A Court of Session is the highest criminal court in a district and the court of first instance for trying serious offe ...

. It also observed that a private complainant (such as a complainant in a cheque bouncing case) is different from that of a victim in a police report. Justice P. N. Prakash of the

was hearing this case earlier. But later, he had referred the case to the larger bench to decide whether the Judgement in Ganapathy Case relying on Satya Pal Singh V. State of Madhya Pradesh and others (2015) was correct or not? In the Satya Pal case, the Supreme Court had found that the term 'victim' also includes 'a complainant'. Therefore, it was held that a complainant can also invoke the proviso to Section 372 of CrPC and file an appeal against an order of acquittal. When answering the question, the larger bench ruled that the S Ganapathy judgment had been passed without considering an earlier three-Judge Bench ruling of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in Damodar S. Prabhu v. Sayed Babalal H (2010). In the Damodar case it was held by the Supreme Court that in the case of acquittal by the judicial magistrate first class, the complainant could appeal to the High Court under Section 378(4) of the CrPC, and thereafter for special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court under Article 136. The judgment was delivered by Justice Sundresh on behalf of Justice Bharathidasan. Justice Venkatesh pronounced a judgement concurring with the main judgment by stating that a victim in a case rooted in a police report and a complainant in a case arising out of a private complaint have been given a separate path to work out their right of appeal and one cannot cross over into the path of the other. Almost all the High courts have held that a complainant can file an Appeal against acquittal only before the High Court under Section 378 (4) of Cr.PC.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundresh, M. M. 1962 births Living people 21st-century Indian judges Judges of the Madras High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India Loyola College, Chennai alumni People from Erode district