Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari, the Kerala High Court judge who heard the Bollywood film Kerala Story 2 case, has been appointed the new Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. The current Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Manindra Mohan Srivastava, is set to retire on March 5th. He will assume office just a day later, on March 6th, 2026.
Justice Dharmadhikari was part of the division bench that heard the appeal against a single bench's interim order restraining the release of the film "The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond."
The bench comprising Justice Dharmadhikari and Justice P.V. Balakrishnan reserved its decision after a nearly two-hour hearing late Thursday evening.
What was the matter?
After hearing arguments from the film's producer, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who had appealed against a single judge's interim order, the bench observed that the arguments opposing the film's certification amounted to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and questioned how a single judge could hear it.
However, the bench did not pass any interim order in the court after the hearing concluded, as sought by the producer.
Earlier, single-judge Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas had stayed the film's release, stating that the Censor Board (CBFC) had ignored legal requirements. He also stated that releasing the film without scrutiny by higher authorities would be legally unjustified due to the potential for the film to incite communal hatred or insult any community.
Who is Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari?
Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari was born on July 8, 1966, in Raipur to Mr. Arvind H. Dharmadhikari and Mrs. Shubha Dharmadhikari. He holds a bachelor's degree in commerce and law from Nagpur University. He enrolled as an advocate in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur, in 1992.
He has also represented the Income Tax Department and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He was appointed as an additional judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in April 2016 and a permanent judge in March 2018. In April last year, he was sworn in as a judge of the Kerala High Court.
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