# Devan Ramachandran

Devan Ramachandran (born 19 March 1968) is an Indian judge who is presently serving as a judge of Kerala High Court. The High Court of Kerala is the highest court of Judicature for the State of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep.

## Early life and education

Devan Ramachandran did his schooling at Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Ernakulam. He then studied at Sacred Heart College, Kochi, and graduated in law from Government Law College, Ernakulam.

## Career

He started practicing as an advocate in 1991, under the guidance of his father Senior Advocate Mr. M.P.R. Nair, Barrister-in-Law (Middle Temple- London). He practiced in various modern branches of law including corporate, company and constitutional matters. In recognition of his eminence, the Kerala High Court had engaged services of Sri Devan Ramachandran to be its advocate/counsel when he was just 34 years, making him the youngest one to do so till date. Justice Ramachandran also served as standing counsel for the CBSE, various private and public companies, various banking and financial institutions, including the Indian Banks' Association, the principal financial advisory mechanism to Reserve Bank of India.

## Achievements

He was designated as a 'Senior Advocate' by the High Court of Kerala, in 2015.
The High Court of Kerala had also appointed Justice Devan, while he was a Counsel, to assist as an Amicus Curiae (friend of court) in a suo motu Public Interest Litigation pertaining to the illegal trafficking of children from North India to Kerala.
The Indian Express recognised Justice Devan Ramachandran as a newsmaker in 2019 for his judgments that impacted public life.

## Notable cases

Most recently, Justice Devan Ramachandran has emphatically declared that a woman or girl cannot be judged by the dress they wear. This judgment is now hailed as a progressive one.
Justice Devan Ramachandran, for a Division Bench, had held that the use of the phrase “deaf and dumb” is ethically wrong and technically incorrect, being relic of medieval era. “Hard of hearing” and “incapable of verbal communication” is to be preferred, the Court said.
In a first of its kind, Justice Devan Ramachandran sentenced a police officer to imprisonment for having misbehaved with a citizen. This is after, in an earlier significant judgment, Justice Devan Ramachandran has declared the use of disrespectful and abusive words and vocatives by Police against citizens to be “relics of the colonial subjugatory tactics” and hence unconstitutional. The State Police Chief had then issued a circular to all officers not to use disrespectful words like “eda”, “podi” and “nee” to address citizens.
In the year 2018, Justice Devan delivered another judgment directing the State Police Chief to ensure that the Police Force behaves as a modern, civilized and professional force.
Justice Devan Ramachandran, speaking for a Division Bench, granted divorce to a woman “in a loveless relationship, reduced to feelings of self-worthlessness and despondency." He explained the position of a woman “feeling trapped and experiencing asphyxiation – not of breathing air, but of dignity and safety – as one that cannot be easily described."
In a landmark judgment, pushing for full bodily autonomy for women, especially as regards reproductive rights, Justice Devan Ramachandran delivered judgment declaring that for every girl and woman “her body is her right."
In another judgment touching on gender sensitivity, Justice Devan declared: “Boys must be taught in school that they should not touch a girl/woman without her explicit consent. They should understand ‘No’ means ‘No’."
Dr. Vandana Das, a young house surgeon was killed by a patient on duty in May 2023 in Kerala. The matter came to the court of Justice Devan at the instance of medical students and Kerala University of Health Sciences. In true spirit of constitutional empathy, he declared “she is our daughter." This intervention lead to the law against attack on medical personnel in Kerala to be made and enforced. After this, the attacks have come down drastically.
In 2022, Justice Devan Ramachandran was called upon by young girl students to decide if the “curfew” imposed on them to leave and enter their hostels were justified. Justice Ramachandran, in a landmark judgment held that “no gate, no lock, no bolt, can set upon the freedom of the kind of a girl” and ordered relaxation of the timings of all student hostels in Kerala.
In a move to make Kerala an investor friendly destination, Justice Ramachandran has held the long continuing ill practice of Trade Unions to extort money as gawking charges (called “nokkukooli” in Malayalam) illegal.
During the COVID-19 disruption times, Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice Kauser Edapagath took up several important issues with respect to the pandemic. The most important was to control the COVID treatment costs in private hospitals.
In 2020, a notable order authored by Justice Ramachandran relating to a controversial contract granted by the Government of Kerala to an American company called "Sprinklr" for processing the data of patients and persons suspected of COVID-19 in Kerala. Through the order, Justice Ramachandran, sitting with Justice Ravi, directed the Government to anonymise the entire data before it is handed over to Sprinklr for processing; further injuncting Sprinklr from committing any breach of confidentiality or dealing with the data against the terms of the confidentiality clauses in the agreement. The Columbia University Journal has hailed this order to be "extra ordinary" from the angle of data protection.
The condition of bad roads and flooding in Kochi City and other parts of Kerala has been engaging the High Court through Justice Ramachandran. However, in the meanwhile a young person died in a pothole and Justice Ramachandran took note of it suo Motu and issued urgent directions, at the same time apologising to the victim's family for the systemic failure that led to the accident.
Reacting to the death of a pedestrian by electrocution from a snapped overhead line on a public street, Justice Devan initiated a suo motu case against the Electricity Board and issued directions to it to avert such in future.
Justice Ramachandran has been writing judgments on the need for protection and conservation of environment, ecology and nature. He has, sitting in Division, banned the use of plastics at the Sabarimala Hills and shrine, including in the "irumudikettu", the traditional offering carried by pilgrims. This judgment has now forced Government of Kerala to ban single-use plastics in the whole of Kerala.
Again, Justice Devan Ramachandran, reacting to the horrific damage being caused to ecology by what is commonly called the "Flex Boards" found carelessly placed all over public spaces in Kerala by political parties, film companies, religious institutions etc., ordered that they be removed forthwith and declared illegal the installation and erection of unauthorised Flex Boards, advertisement boards, billboards, banners and flags in any public space all over Kerala. As a direct result all such boards and flags have been now removed from the entire state This case is still pending under the concept of continuing mandamus. As a result, the Government of Kerala has an lso issued an order banning "Flex Boards" in the state.
Justice Devan, evolving a new principle termed "Lost Life", ordered payment as special compensation to be paid to the mother of a minor victim of a motor accident who had been reduced to a permanent vegetative state pursuant to the accident and has remained as such for the past 13 years.
Justice Devan Ramachandran ruled, again in a first of its kind judgment, in November 2017, that a minister whilst he is holding such a position cannot file a case against one's own government or its functionaries. The judgment was rendered in case filed by Sri Thomas Chandy, an erstwhile minister in the State of Kerala. The judgment touches upon the aspects of 'Cabinet Confidentiality' and 'Cabinet Solidarity'.
Through a judgment delivered in October 2017, in T.M. Thomas v State of Kerala, Justice Devan had called for mechanism ensuring active participation of victims in criminal proceedings along with the State, rather than being a mere outsider to such proceedings. The Director General of Police, in compliance with the above judgment has subsequently issued a circular to honor in letter and spirit the terms of the said judgment.
Justice Devan, upholding the autonomy and independence of universities, held that they are not subservient to any government.
Describing the long queues in front of liquor shops across the state as an "affront to the dignity of citizenry and loss of self respect", Justice Ramachandran, issued various directions to the State Excise Department to do away with such a practice with consideration for self respect and upholding humanitarian values.
In a judgment delivered in 2016, Justice Devan Ramachandran, expressed concern over the deteriorating status of legal education across the country. Justice Devan, who penned the judgment sitting in Division Bench, directed that the legal education imparted across the country should be done with a trajectory (vision) towards the future.