Former SC judge V Ramaswami passes away at 96

CHENNAI: Former Supreme Court judge V Ramaswami passed away at his residence in Chennai after suffering a heart attack Saturday morning. He was 96. He was the first judge in India to face impeachment proceedings. The impeachment motion was brought against the justice for spending excessive money on his official residence during his tenure as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In 1993, a resolution was moved in the Lok Sabha seeking Ramaswamy's removal. The committee headed by Justice Punjab Sawant of the Supreme Court that investigated the allegations against him found Justice Ramaswami guilty of 11 of the 14 charges. However, the resolution was defeated after members of the then ruling Congress and its allies abstained from voting. He retired from service in 1994. Five years later, in 1999, Justice Ramaswami contested from the Sivakasi constituency as an AIADMK candidate but lost.

He was born on 15 February in 1929. His schooling was at Hindu High School, in Srivilliputtur of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu. Later, he graduated from the American College, Madurai and obtained an LLB degree from Madras Law College. He enrolled as an advocate on July 13 in 1953. He was appointed as Additional Government Pleader in 1962 and as a State Public Prosecutor in 1969. He was elevated as a judge of the Madras High Court in 1971. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1987 and was elevated to the Supreme Court in 1989. He has three daughters and two sons. One of them is an advocate.