| Gopal Ballav Pattanaik | |
| Order: | 32nd |
| Office: | Chief Justice of India |
| Term Start: | 8 November 2002[1] |
| Term End: | 18 December 2002 |
| Appointer: | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| Predecessor: | Bhupinder Nath Kirpal |
| Successor: | V. N. Khare[2] |
| Birth Date: | 1937 12, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Cuttack, Odisha, India |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Citizenship: | Indian |
| Occupation: | Jurist |
| Awards: | Utkal Ratna 2021 |
Gopal Ballav Pattanaik (born 19 December 1937) is an Indian lawyer and later a jurist who served over a period of 19 years in the bench of the Odisha High Court as a permanent judge, as chief justice of the Patna High Court, Judge of the Supreme Court of India and as the 32nd[3] Chief Justice of India.[4] [5]
Pattanaik grew up in Cuttack, Odisha, where he later studied at the Ravenshaw College and then graduated in science from Ewing Christian College, Allahabad University. He then went on to earn his degree in Law from Madhusudan Law College at Cuttack affiliated to the Utkal University in Odisha.
In 2002, Pattanaik was appointed Chief Justice of India by the President Shri A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
He was born on 19 December 1937 in the city of Cuttack, now in Odisha, India.
He studied at the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and graduated in Science from the Ewing Christian College, Allahabad University and earned his degree in Law from Madhusudan Law College, Utkal University in Odisha.
In 1962, he enrolled as an advocate in the Orissa High Court, where he practiced in civil, criminal, constitutional and corporate cases. He also appeared before the Supreme Court of India. As a first generation of lawyer, his legal career started in the chambers of late lawyer Bimal Pal, Barrister Birendra Mohan Patnaik and Justice Souri Prasad Mahapatra were instrumental in encouraging him to take up the legal profession.[6]
In 1971, he was appointed the Standing Counsel for the state Government of Orissa. In 1974 he became an Additional Government Advocate and subsequently the Govt. Advocate of the state. In 1983, he was elevated to the bench of the Orissa High Court as a permanent judge.[7] In 1995, he was appointed the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. After a short stint in the Patna High Court, he was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He went on to occupy the highest judicial post in the country as the 32nd Chief Justice of India on 8 November 2002.[8]
When Patnaik took over as the Chief Justice of India, it appeared that he would not be able to achieve much in the administration of the judiciary, in view of his short tenure. However, he began a momentous chapter in the history of Indian judiciary by putting into practice the 'in-house procedure' evolved in 1997 to deal with allegations of misconduct against members of the higher judiciary.
Some of the far reaching and well published judgements of Patnaik include:-
Pattanaik was a member of the Indo British and Indo-U.S. judicial exchange programme. He visited UK and the United States and participated in joint workshops and seminars with the judges of the House of Lords in Britain and the U.S. Supreme Court, respectively. His contemporaries in the US Supreme Court with whom he participated in the joint workshop were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (the first woman judge of the US Supreme Court).
Pattnaik is a former Chairperson of the National Judicial Academy of India, Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority of India (NALSA) and Former President of the Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India.
For several years he was the Chairman of the selection committee for the prestigious literary award of Indian literature, the “Saraswati Samman”.
He was conferred with an honorary doctorate in law LLD by the Utkal University. In 2021 Pattanaik was the recipient of the prestigious Utkal Ratna award for his lifetime achievement in the field of Law and Justice.