Justice Kuldip Singh, SC’s first Green judge, dies | News from India

The pollution and environmental cases he follows continue today
NEW DELHI: No one has left a judicial legacy in the environmental field as brilliant and effective as Justice Kuldip Singhcalled the first ‘green judge” of the Supreme Court. He retired in December 1996 but the two environmental cases linked to pollution and the forest, which he handled with aplomb, continue to be heard today by the two green benches of the CS.
Justice Singh died on Tuesday at the age of 92. He is survived by two sons, Paramjit Singh Patwalia and Deepinder Singh Patwalia, both noted senior lawyers, and two daughters – Simran and Chandana.
Born in Jhelum, now Pakistan, in 1932, Singh graduated in law from Punjab University and became a lawyer in November 1959 before starting practice in Punjab HC. However, he continued to teach law part-time at the law faculty of Punjab University until 1971. He was appointed Advocate General of Punjab in 1987, the year he moved to Delhi after was appointed Additional Solicitor General.
He was appointed as an SC judge on December 14, 1988. Although his name preceded AM Ahmadi in the oath-taking sequence, on the day of swearing-in he was informed by the then CJI RS Pathak that he would be taking oath after Justice Ahmadi. This change in sequence meant that Justice Ahmadi would become CJI in October 1994 after Justice MN Venkatachaliah.
Had Justice Singh taken oath before Ahmadi, he would have been the CJI from October 1994 to December 1996 and Justice Ahmadi’s tenure as CJI would have been reduced to just three months. Noticing the change in the oath-taking sequence, Justice Singh had initially refused to take oath as an SC judge, but did so after being pacified by the then CJI.
As a SC judge, he took up with keen interest two cases – one filed by an environmentalist MC Mehta in 1985 to protect the Taj Mahal from industrial and automobile pollution, which was already causing a yellowing effect on the white marble monument, and the other by TN Godavarman Thirumulpad in 1995 for declaring the sandalwood trees as a protected environment.
The zeal with which he activated a lethargic administration for the protection of the monument and reduced pollution in the Taj Trapezium area and used the other case to protect forests and curb indiscriminate felling of trees across the country, earned him the nickname “Green Judge”. These two cases are still alive on the SC docket and are now being heard by two different benches headed by Justices BR Gavai and AS Oka.