Justice Yatindra Singh Retd. Chief Justice Chhattisgarh High Court

Justice Yatindra Singh

Justice Yatindra Singh, is Chairman of the Krishna Virendra Trust. He is son of Sri VKS Chaudhary, former Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh. 

Justice Singh was born on 9^th October, 1952 and passed High School & Intermediate in 1st Division. He graduated in Science with distinction, securing 6th position in merit from the University of Allahabad in 1970. He was awarded Merit as well as National scholarships. After taking law degree, he joined the bar in 1973.

Justice Singh served as Additional Advocate General for the State of UP from 1997 to 1999. Among other important cases, he was the main counsel at the Allahabad High Court in the case, where Kalyan Singh was reinstated as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, after his removal by the then Governor Romesh Bhandari.  

Justice Singh was appointed as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court on February 05, 1999. He joined the Chhattisgarh High Court as the Chief Justice on 22nd October, 2012 and retired on 8th October, 2014. During this time, he revamped and modernised the computerisation at the Allahabad and the Chhattisgarh High Courts.

He was appointed Visiting Professor on 29.09.2014 in the Faculty of Law, University of Allahabad, Allahabad and taught 'Information Technology and IPR' in the University. 

Justice Singh is a keen sportsman and has represented the State of UP in Table Tennis. He was captain and champion of the University of Allahabad in Table Tennis and Squash.

Justice Singh has written three books in English entitled 'A Lawyer's World and Childhood Dreams', ‘Information Technology Law’ (updated edition of the book earlier published titled as 'Cyberlaws') and 'Musings of a Judge': 

• 'A Lawyer's World and Childhood Dreams' consists of articles written, when he was a lawyer; 
• 'Musings of a Judge' is a collection of his articles and speeches as a Judge; and
• ‘Information Technology Law’ (updated version of 'Cyberlaws') is a collection of talks given by the author at different places; suitably modified in the form of a book. 

His speeches, talks and articles and may be seen at the on this blog 'Legal World and Childhood Dreams'. 

Justice Singh is a keen supporter of our national language Hindi.  He used Hindi in the courts and also gave judgements in Hindi. He has also published two books in Hindi under his pen name ‘Unmukt’ (उन्मुक्त) titled ‘Mukt Vicharon Ka Sangam’ (मुक्त विचारों का संगम) and ‘Kahin Khushi kahin Gam’ (कहीं खुशी, कहीं गम). They are compilation of posts of his blog  in Hindi ‘उन्मुक्त’। 

Justice Singh has participated in National and International conferences. Important among them are as follows:

• Judges' Round Table Conference on IPR held at Kolkata and read a paper 'Intellectual Property Rights on the Internet' on 31.07.2005;
• Ninth e-Governance conference at Kochi, Kerala and read a paper 'Leveraging Open Source Software' on 03.02.2006;
• Global conference on  IPR at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal and read a paper 'Protection of Semiconductor Topography' on 04.02.2006;
• International symposium 'Owning the Future: Ideas and Their Role in the Digital Age' jointly hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) and Red Hat, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA at New Delhi and read a paper 'Make Love not War' on 24.08.2006; 
• International Conference at Berlin (Germany). It was the First International Open Document Format User Workshop, organized by the German Federal Foreign Office in collaboration with ODF Alliance at Berlin and read the paper 'Means are More Important than the End' on 29.10.2007;
• International Conference at Pretoria (South Africa). It was the Second International Open Document Format User Workshop, organized by the E-Documentation Committee chaired by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with ODF Alliance at Pretoria and read the Paper 'Be the Change – You Want to See in the World' on 09.10.2008.

Here are some Web Links, where there is discussion about the work done by Justice Singh

• सीजे ने राह दिखाई, इन पर चलना चुनौती;
• India: Influential Voices Back “IP-unencumbered” Software; Copyright Debate Heats Up;
• Indian Simmer;
• अरे चीफ जस्टिस ... चौंक गया रायपुर
• वकील साहब... मैं ही चीफ जस्टिस सिंह हूं
• Good Speech
• Life is full of Surprises

Justice Singh has established a charitable trust in the name of 'Krishna Virendra Trust' in the memory of his mother. The Trust offers scholarships to meritorious students, promotes sports as well as charitable activities including sponsoring an orphan girl child at  Swaraj-Bhavan Allahabad, a destitute girl at Tejaswini Pratishthan, Bilaspur, and an adivasi student at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Sewa Samarpan Sansthan, Allahabad) as well as adopting four Great Horned Owls at Indira Gandhi zoological park, Vishakhapatnam and a peacock at Kanan Pindari zoo, Bilaspur. 

Solar Powered Chhattisgarh High Court - the first court to be so powered

Justice Yatindra Singh has been designated as the Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India and is practising law. He can be contacted at yksingh@gmail.com or +91120-4216163 or 38 High Court Judges' Colony, Sector-105 Noida-201301.