He has delivered landmark judgments

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: K.G. Balakrishnan, who has been elevated Chief Justice of India, has delivered several landmark judgments dealing with Constitutional and other matters, criminal laws and public interest litigation.

Setting aside a long-standing convention, Mr. Justice Balakrishnan, as Supreme Court judge, declined to show any leniency to two sisters, found guilty of kidnapping 13 children and murdering nine of them, in Mumbai. He awarded them death sentence.

He was part of the Bench which held that courts could not interfere in criminal proceedings in public interest litigation and thus gave relief to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in income tax cases. He was also on the Bench that upheld the constitutional validity of a provision in the Representation of the People Act changing the domicile norm for contesting elections to the Rajya Sabha.

Mr. Justice Balakrishnan came down heavily on the practice of High Court judges granting bail to the accused during their visits to prisons, while performing their administrative duty of inspection.