Some important verdicts of Justice Lokur

Sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, who is below 18 years of age, is rape. A girl child below the age of 18 cannot be treated as a commodity having no say over her body

A prisoner is required to be treated as a human being entitled to all basic human rights, human dignity and human sympathy

Release of undertrial prisoners having undergone detention for half of maximum period of imprisonment for his offence

Directed probe against former CBI director Ranjit Sinha for meeting accused named in coal block allocation scam at his residence

Asked Centre to frame scheme to promote widow remarriage

Directed mining companies in Odisha to pay compensation of about Rs 17,576 crore for illegal operations

Ordered that family members of prisoners dying under mysterious circumstances be given compensation

Directed Centre to block all child pornography websites and create an online portal and hotline number for anonymous complaints

NEW DELHI: Justice Madan B Lokur, who has been at the forefront of protecting the rights of the poor and underprivileged sections of society by heading the social justice bench of the Supreme Court, held court for one last time on December 14 which was also the last working day of the court before his retirement on December 31.Justice Lokur’s stint in the apex court over six years will be remembered for his contribution to environment protection, juvenile jurisprudence and for passing a slew of directions to put in place a mechanism to protect the interests of the people neglected by the government authorities, including the poor, homeless, widows, undertrial prisoners, farmers and children. He was also instrumental in reviving the sealing drive in the national capital to remove illegal structures and passed various orders to curb air pollution.Speaking at his farewell function in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi described him as a citizens’ judge and pro-victim judge. He said Justice Lokur’s progressive judgements will keep guiding the judiciary in the years to come. The CJI went on to describe him as one of the most outstanding and pragmatic judges of the apex court, whose heart bleeds for the poor and the vulnerable and has been the flag-bearer of environment jurisprudence.Being outspoken against governments and their agencies which failed to discharge their duties to protect the common man, Justice Lokur had to face criticism from the Centre for allegedly not adhering to the principle of separation of powers and encroaching upon the domain of the executive government. During the hearing on PILs, the court often witnessed heated exchange of words between Justice Lokur and attorney general K K Venugopal who time and again raised the issue that the court should maintain restraint in entertaining such petitions.Deprecating the tendency of governments accusing judiciary for encroaching upon the domain of the executive and legislature, Justice Lokur, in one of his judgements, said it was being done to cover up their own failures to provide social justice to the people. “In recent times, usually and regrettably, the state has chosen to challenge the idea of PIL or denigrate it by chanting the mantra of judicial activism or separation of powers. In most cases, these mantras are nothing but a fig leaf to cover the failure of the State to recognise the existence of the rule of law and the need for providing social justice to the people of the country, as stated in the Preamble to our Constitution. There must be a realization that PIL has given a voice to millions of marginalized sections of society, women and children,” Justice Lokur had said.Accepting that he had been at the “receiving end” of Justice Lokur’s judicial philosophy during court proceedings, the attorney general heaped tons of praise on the second senior most judge and said, “He is a judge with his heart and empathy at right place. After every occasion of disagreement with him, I am left with an impression of a highly dignified and impassioned judge. He redefined the judiciary and the constitution.”Praising Justice Lokur’s intervention in protection of Taj Mahal , the AG said, “Thanks to Justice Lokur, the coming generations will keep enjoying the beauty of Taj”.