Who is Justice L Nageswara Rao? SC appoints ex-judge to mediate Kalyani family dispute | Today’s news
The Supreme Court on Monday referred the long-running property dispute between industrialist Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani and his sister Suganda Hiremath to mediation, appointing former Supreme Court judge Justice L Nageswara Rao to facilitate efforts for a mutually acceptable solution, Live Law Biz reports.
The court further directed that the Bombay High Court should not proceed with Babasaheb Kalyani’s plea to dismiss the suit till the mediation exercise is completed.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohan encouraged both sides to make one last attempt to settle the family dispute through mediation. The bench asked former Supreme Court judge Justice L. Nageswar Rao to complete the mediation process within two weeks.
The court stated that in many cases, family disputes were resolved through mediation, despite earlier unsuccessful attempts. She urged the parties to put aside lengthy litigation and sincerely seek an amicable settlement.
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“Mediation can succeed only so many times later. We advise them that it is high time to bury the hatchet. They should think of so many other prospective things in the future. Instead of diverting their attention and energy, they should focus on resolving the dispute. That is the magic of mediation,” the court noted.
Who is Justice L Nageswara Rao?
A 69-year-old native of Pedanandipad in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Justice Rao completed his schooling from Loyola Public School, Guntur, and went on to pursue higher education at JKC College and TJPS College in the same city. He started his legal career at the Andhra Pradesh High Court before shifting his practice to the Supreme Court. He was appointed solicitor general in 2000 and became one of the leading constitutional lawyers in the country.
Justice L. Nageswara Rao has reportedly been elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court, becoming only the seventh lawyer to be appointed to the apex court without first serving as a High Court judge. He was sworn in as an SC judge on 13 May 2016. Before his elevation, he was a distinguished senior advocate and also served as Additional Solicitor General of India.
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During his career at the Bar, Justice Rao appeared in several high-profile cases. Represented former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case in the Karnataka High Court, where he successfully secured the quashing of her conviction. Among the last matters he argued before joining the bench was the NEET case in which he represented the Tamil Nadu government and the Christian Medical College.
Justice Rao is said to have served as a judge of the Supreme Court since 13 May 2016.
He retired on June 7, 2022.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the petitioners, supported renewed mediation efforts and argued that the prospect of a settlement should not be dismissed just because earlier attempts had failed.
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“Can you lead a horse to water, can you make him drink? You may not be able to, but that’s the whole purpose of mediation,” he told the court, according to the report.
On the other hand, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Aryama Sundaram, Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal, appearing for Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani, opposed the re-referral of the dispute to mediation. They argued that three previous mediation efforts, including those conducted in the High Court and the Pune District Court, had already failed.
Referring to an earlier family dispute that was finally resolved despite several failed attempts at mediation, Chief Justice Surya Kant observed that parties should not give up hope of resolution just because previous efforts were unsuccessful.
“After seven or eight rounds of mediation, the older brother said, ‘I don’t want a penny.’ The younger brother touched his feet, they both started crying and settled the dispute. That’s the miracle. That’s the magic of mediation,” the court stated.
The direction comes more than two months after the Bombay High Court refused to send the matter for mediation, observing that mediation under the Mediation Act, 2023 is a voluntary process and cannot be enforced unless one of the parties agrees.
