JUSTICE CT RAVIKUMAR
Date of Birth : 06-01-1960
Assumed Office : 31-08-2021
Retires on: 05-01-2025
No. of Judgements authored : 39
Justice CT Ravikumar , whose father was a judicial clerk , made his way from a small hill town, Peermade, in Kerala to the Apex Court of the country. Justice Ravikumar , a Zoology graduate from Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara , completed his law graduation from Government Law College, Kozhikode and enrolled with the bar in the year 1986. He started practising law in Mavelikara until he decided to move to the Kerala High Court in Ernakulam. From 1991 to 2005 he worked as the Government pleader and in 2006, Justice Ravikumar was appointed as the Senior Government Pleader.
After 20 years of practice, Justice Ravikumar was appointed as Additional Judge of the High Court of Kerala on 5th January 2009 and elevated to a Permanent Judge on 15th December 2010. He was appointed as the Executive Chairman of Kerala State Legal Services Authority and conducted Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes. He also served as the President of the Kerala Judicial Academy, President of Kerala State Mediation and Conciliation Centre. Justice Ravikumar became the fifth Judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court directly from his parent High Court of Kerala.
After serving as a judge in the Kerala High court for 12 years , he was elevated to the Supreme Court on 31st August,2021 as a Supreme Court Judge. He became the 5th judge to be appointed from his home High Court. He will be serving at the apex court for four years and is due to retire on 5th February,2025.
Notable judgements
Child in Conflict with Law through Its Mother v. State of Karnataka (2024)
The Supreme Court held that the three-month period stipulated under Section 14(3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, for assessing the mental and physical capacity of a child under sixteen years to commit a serious offense, is not mandatory but merely directory. Furthermore, to address the lack of a specified time frame under the JJ Act for appealing a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) preliminary assessment order, the Court introduced a 30-day time limit for filing such appeals.
Shazia Aman Khan and Another v. The State of Orissa and Others (2024)
While deciding a child custody dispute, the Supreme Court granted custody of a minor to the aunt despite the father’s objection. The Court underscored that the welfare of the child is paramount and overrides any provisions of personal laws or statutes in custody matters.
Basavaraj v. Indira and Others (2024)
The Supreme Court addressed whether a plaintiff could amend a suit to change its nature, specifically from a partition suit to a declaration suit seeking to void a compromise decree. It ruled that amendments under Order 6 Rule 17 of the Civil Procedure Code that fundamentally alter the nature of the suit cannot be allowed.