Viswanathan’s journey has been full of difficulties
Justice Vishwanathan came to Delhi from Tamil Nadu in 1988 and started practicing in the Supreme Court. He used to live in a single room in RK Puram area of South Delhi. He will be the third such judge from Tamil Nadu who will reach the chair of the Chief Justice. Apart from this, Justice SM Sikri will be the fourth Justice after Justice UU Lalit, Justice PS Narasimha to become a judge directly from the bar.
Justice Vishwanathan, 57, is a resident of Pollachi town in Tamil Nadu. He lived near Coimbatore. He did his schooling from Pollachi Arokia Math Matriculation School. After this she did further studies from Sainik School Amravati Nagar and Udhagai Susyapar High School. He studied law from Coimbatore Law College. Viswanathan’s father KV Venkataraman was a public prosecutor in Coimbatore.
Viswanathan lived in a rented room
Vishwanathan moved to Delhi in 1988 with the desire to become a big lawyer. He started living with a friend in the Central Government Government Quarters at RK Puram at a rent of Rs 200 a month. The area had a sizeable population of Tamil speakers and Viswanathan had no problem finding a place to live here. Justice Viswanathan lived in the Murugan temple area and used to eat at the nearby Mahalingam mess. He was later shifted to Mohammadpur village along with three others.
Career started like this
Justice Vishwanathan started his career with senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan was the lawyer on behalf of Lord Ramlala in the Ayodhya case. Justice Vishwanathan served as Vaidyanathan’s junior from 1988 to 1990 and appeared in the Supreme Court, High Court and lower courts. Justice Vishwanathan then worked as junior to senior advocate KK Venugopal from 1990 to 1995. In 2009, Justice Vishwanathan got the status of senior advocate. He has also been the Solicitor General in the Central Government.
When Justice Vishwanathan became court translator
In 1991, when the country’s former PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE, a one-man inquiry commission headed by Justice MC Jain was entrusted with the responsibility of investigating the incident. During this, Justice Vishwanathan became the translator of the court from the opposing side.
The hearing of the Jain Commission was held in the annexe of Vigyan Bhavan, Delhi. Here leaders of Tamil Nadu political parties M Karunanidhi, Vaiko and many more used to come to record their statements. Justice Vishwanathan appeared before the commission on behalf of the AIADMK. The leaders used to speak in English but as soon as DMK leader Karunanidhi started speaking in Tamil, Justice Jain did not understand what to do. Then he asked Justice Vishwanathan that would you translate what Karunanidhi is saying? Then Justice Vishwanathan said that he was appearing on behalf of AIADMK. After this, Justice Jain asked the people standing there whether anyone had any problem with the translation of Justice Vishwanathan? No one objected to this. Justice Vishwanathan then translated Karunanidhi’s words for Justice Jain.
Justice Vishwanathan has appeared in many important cases in the Supreme Court. Apart from this, he has also been amicus curiae of the court in many very sensitive cases. Justice Vishwanathan will be the third Chief Justice from Tamil Nadu. Before him, Justice M. Patanjali Shastri (1951-1954) and Justice P. Sathasivam were the Chief Justices for about 9 months.