CHENNAI: “Justice K Chandru is to the judiciary, what Donald Bradman is to cricket.” This is what a young labour law specialist commented, reacting to the retirement of Madras high court ’s Justice Chandru, who disposed over 96,000 cases in less than seven years.

At the end of his last day in office on Friday, Justice Chandru met acting Chief Justice R K Agrawal and submitted a copy of his ‘voluntary declaration of assets ’. After returning to his chambers, he signed some papers brought by the court registry personnel, before slipping into a khadi kurta and dhoti and trekking down towards the press room, where he spent a few happy moments answering queries from journalists.

He then walked across NSC Bose Road to join a group of his old friends, waiting at Sangeetha restaurant, to have coffee with them. He then reached the Beach Station and boarded a suburban MRTS train bound for Velacherry. “I will get down at Greenways Road station and walk home. I have purchased a monthly season ticket. As I am a senior citizen, it cost me only Rs 105,” he told TOI.

It was a farewell of sorts, as by the time he emerged out of the high court gate, Justice Chandru was being followed by about 150 advocates and others, jostling to get close and capture every word he uttered. While he was on NSC Bose Road, many platform-dwellers, vendors and rickshaw-pullers, who were once represented in court by ‘advocate Chandru’, came rushing and greeted him with a ‘Vanakkam’. He discouraged a rickshaw man from following him, and curtly told him to go and do his business.

Earlier, when reporters asked him about his ‘prescription’ for reducing the huge pendency of cases in courts, Justice Chandru said, “One, lawyers should not boycott courts. Two, they should not take adjournments unnecessarily. Three, they must come to court after reading the case and laws.”

As for his post-retirement plans, the judge said he would engage himself in social work and offer law-related assistance to the needy sections of society. Declaring that he never felt bad about any order he had passed during his stint, Justice Chandru said not reaching the 1-lakh mark too did not bother him. “It is a mere number. I have discharged the constitutional duty entrusted to me with utmost sincerity and satisfaction,” he said.