Impossible To Satisfy Every Litigant, Judge's Morality Should Be Governed By Sensible Sections Of Society: Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad Retires

The Orissa High Court held a Full-Court Reference on Friday (July 17) to bid farewell to Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad, the third senior-most Judge of the High Court, upon his superannuation from office with effect from July 19, 2026.

The event, which was chaired by Chief Justice Harish Tandon, saw attendance of the Judges of the High Court, Justices R. Nataraj and E.S. Indiresh of the Karnataka High Court, Advocate General of Odisha Pitambar Acharya, Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI) PK Parhi and President of the Orissa High Court Bar Association (OHCBA) Lalatendu Samantaray amongst others.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice Tandon extolled the intellectual and literary brilliance of Justice Shripad. He reminisced sharing ideas and experiences with the outgoing Judge, who according to the Chief Justice was “erudite” and a source of intellectual enrichment.

Advocate General Acharya said even though Justice Shripad had a brief tenure at the Orissa High Court, he has left an “indelible mark” on the legal fraternity and the litigants by his knowledge, fairness, justice and erudition. He further said that the Judge's jurisprudence and exceptional development of legal thought have created a landmark in the justice delivery system. The top law officer commended the Judge for effortlessly blending literature with law in his precise judgments. The DSGI and the OHCBA President expressed similar thoughts.

Convening his retiral address, the Justice Shripad, in his usual charismatic eccentricity, quoted lone female Chief Minister of Odisha Nandini Satpathy, who had once reportedly said “when river Ganga overflows, it is difficult to take bath in it”. The Judge was visibly overwhelmed by the influx of admirations from the words of the leaders of the Bar.

“Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” the outgoing jurist invoked the above lines of the Victorian Poet T.S. Eliot to remind that even though the world has traversed from “natural intelligence” to “artificial intelligence”, the ethos of justice delivery remains intrinsic to human values.

“Justice is a thing that emerges from the realm of heart…A Judge takes oath to do justice. The constitutional format of Judge's oath, which [Sir] Benegal Narsing Rau had crafted, is profound. I should say that to a great extent, with humility, I complied with the format. Whether I really complied or not is for you to adjudge…I never differentiated between Senior Advocate, junior Advocate, raw Advocate etc. Whoever used to come to my Court, I expected some performance and my expectation was over-complied with,” the Judge said.

Shedding light on the true purport of the Constitution, Justice Shripad quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said “the Constitutions are meant for doing justice and not for maintaining theories of jurisprudence”.

The retiring Judge also spoke of the anomalies faced by Judges. He categorically stated that it is not possible on the part of a Court to satisfy every litigant. However, at the same time, its conscience must be governed by what the sensible sections of society deem to be just. In the words of the Judge–

“I would only say the litigant who comes before the Court should not go unheard or unsatisfied in the minds of sensible sections of the society. But every litigant who loses his case in Court will go with no joy in the heart. It is bound to happen. But what sensible sections of law, sensible sections of State feel should be the yardstick for adjudging our own morality. It is impossible to satisfy the litigants. Much impossible to satisfy the members of the Bar because always there are conflict of values and interests, which we have to strike a balance between.”

Narrating his pleasant experience in Odisha, the Judge said though initially he was not happy with his transfer from the Karnataka High Court, but after working a year in the coastal State's High Court he felt “he should have been transferred to the [High Court of] Orissa years before”.

He stressed on the need to improve the quality of the Bar in order to achieve upward benchmarks in the quality of the Bench. In his words–

“The Judges are chosen from the Bar and if the Bar is not improved, you cannot import them. Therefore, it is imperative on the part of the Bar and the Bench to enhance the qualitative levels of the members of the Bar so that the members shall be available for being recommended for elevation. That is one of the responsibilities of both the Bar and the Bench.”

Justice Dixit was enrolled as an advocate in July 1989. He predominantly practised in the High Courts of Karnataka and Madras, specializing in Law of Writs, Election Laws and Service Laws. He also appeared before the Service/Administrative Tribunals of different States. He was appointed as the Senior Standing Counsel for the Election Commission of India and also as an Additional Central Government Standing Counsel in 1999.

He also served as Standing Counsel for the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Karnataka Veterinary Sciences University, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and National Institute of Unani Medicines. He was engaged as Amicus Curiae in certain matters before by the High Court of Karnataka. He was a Panel Counsel for a few Nationalized Banks as well.

In 2014, he was appointed as the Assistant Solicitor General and he continued as such till his elevation to the Karnataka High Court as a Judge on February 14, 2018. Justice Dixit had been a part of several important judgments, including the Hijab ban judgment (2022). He was sworn in as a Judge of the Orissa High Court on May 12, 2025.

As a Judge of the Orissa High Court, Justice Shripad often made headlines for his literary rhetorics in various judgments. He authored several landmark judgments, including his last year order [Ranjan Kumar Tripathy & Ors. v. State of Odisha & Ors., 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 159] where he set aside a State Government notification empowering Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of State Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to recommend inter-district and intra-district transfer of teachers bereft of any statutory scheme to that effect. He had notably observed–

“Impugned letter of the kind, which provides for MPs/MLAs recommending transfer of teachers, has the potential of creating a seamless nexus between the political parties/ candidates and the community of teachers. This would not augur well to the system. One needs no research to visualize the fruits of poisonous tree that would grow on the soil of such nexus. It is teachers, more particularly those who teach up to the level of HSC/X Standard, who mould the younger generation as citizenry in the making. As of necessity, teachers have to maintain safe distance from political parties & elected representatives.”

With the retirement of Justice Shripad, the current/working strength of the Orissa High Court comes to down to 17 Judges, against a sanctioned strength of 33 Judges.