Who is Pinaki Chandra Ghose? India’s first Lokpal, official announcement tomorrow

New Delhi, Mar 17: Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, former Supreme Court judge, is all set to be appointed as the India's first Lokpal. The government is expected to make the official announcement regarding Justice PC Ghose's appointment tomorrow.

Born 28 May 1952, Pinaki Chandra Ghose is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. He enrolled at the Bar in 1976.

Prior to his elevation to the Supreme Court, he had served as Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and before that, as a Justice of the Calcutta High Court. He is presently a member of the National Human Rights Commission.

Justice Ghose is son of Late Justice Sambhu Chandra Ghose, who was the former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. He went on to practise on both the original as well as the appellate side at the High Court.

He is a fifth generation lawyer in the family of Dewan Baranasi Ghose of Jorasanko, a renowned family from the northern provinces of the City of Calcutta. Hara Chandra Ghose, who became the first Indian Chief Judge of the Sadar Dewani Adalat at Calcutta in 1867, was a member of this family.

Justice Ghose will be best remembered for his judgment in the Jayalalithaa disproportionate assets case. The judgement, which was passed after the death of the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, restored the trial court verdict in toto. Along with Justice KS Radhakrishnan, he ruled that the practices of Jallikattu and bullock cart races to be violative of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

He was part of the 3:2 majority along with then CJI HL Dattu and Justice FMI Kalifulla that held that the state government has no suo motu power to remit sentences of persons who were convicted under a central law in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Justice Ghose's most productive year was 2015, during which he made 68 rulings. His least productive year was his penultimate year at the apex court, 2016, during which he made a mere 22 rulings. To put that in perspective, he managed just three fewer rulings in 2017 even though he was in office only for half the year.