As the 42nd Chief Justice of India, Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu demitted office and made way for his successor Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, bringing a close to a 14-month long tenure at the top judicial office, here’s a look at the highlights of his days at the office. Sworn in as the Chief Justice of India, on 28 September 2014, Justice HL Dattu pledged to be a common man’s judge on the Bench. One of his first comments was an acknowledgement, “one of the biggest hurdles in the delivery of justice is the huge pendency of cases before courts.” Under his aegis were organised conferences, to device methods to fast-track corruption cases, cases of crime against women, senior citizens, children, disabled etc., which came up with the suggestions like summons and notices to be sent by email, case progress to be updated via text messages and innovative dispute redressal systems to take some burden off courts. Thrust was laid on how to end litigation w ....