NEW DELHI: Four decades after completing his law degree from Lucknow University, Justice Vikram Nath is set to take charge as the next Chief Justice of India, putting the university’s century-old Faculty of Law in the spotlight.
Justice Nath was given distinguished alumni award by the university in 2018. He gets the Supreme Court’s top posts on the retirement of CJI Surya Kant on February 9 on reaching 65 years of age.
He graduated in law from Lucknow University’s Shia PG college in 1986 and enrolled as an advocate the following year. He practised at the Allahabad High Court for more than 17 years before being elevated as an additional judge of the court in 2004. He became a permanent judge in 2006 and later served as Chief Justice of the Gujarat high court before his elevation to the Supreme Court in Aug 2021.
On April 15, 2022 speaking at the inaugural ceremony, he shared experiences from his student life at Shia College, saying, ‘The college made an unprecedented contribution to my success. Had there been no Shia College, I would have been nothing.
“Justice Vikram Nath has a long association with Shia PG College, Lucknow, he studied law here. In April 2022, he returned to the institution as a Supreme Court judge to inaugurate the Hazrat Imam Mohammad Taqi building and recalled his student days,” said Shia PG College spokesperson Pradeep Sharma.
“LU has one of the oldest law departments in the country and the most illustrious alumni base. Prof R U Singh, who served as dean till 1956, systematically developed teaching and research and later helped structure law faculties at Delhi University and BHU. He also drafted the Constitution of Nepal,” said former dean and head (2008-11) retired Prof AK Awasthi.
He said his student Prof Singh’s student V N Shukla became a noted authority on constitutional law and authored a widely regarded book on the Indian Constitution.
“The University’s law department is held in such high regard that when I went to Delhi University for a conference, the eminent Indian legal scholar, jurist, and human rights activist Prof Upendra Baxi, the moment he learned I was from LU said that he would arrange his accommodation or anything needed,” he said and added that a majority of faculty in Delhi University and Allahabad University used to be former LU students.
“Established in 1921 by Jag Mohan Nath Chak, the faculty has produced several prominent figures in the judiciary and legal field like Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand and former Supreme Court judges Justice Saghir Ahmed and Justice Brijesh Kumar among its distinguished law graduates,” said LU law professor Anurag Srivastava.
Justice Nath’s career has included 15 years at the Allahabad High Court, followed by his tenure as Gujarat High Court Chief Justice and elevation to the Supreme Court. During his tenure in Gujarat, he introduced live-streaming of court proceedings, which the Supreme Court describes as the first such initiative by a High Court Chief Justice in India.
His wife, Prof Sangita Srivastava, is also an academic leader in Uttar Pradesh. She was reappointed as vice-chancellor of Allahabad University for a second term in Sept.
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