Justice K. Chandru is a retired Indian judge from Madras High Court, Tamil Nadu. He was appointed as a judge by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in Madras High Court in 2009. During his incumbency, K. Chandru cleared 96000 cases as a judge in six and a half years. He is popular for a Tamil case that he fought during his practice as a lawyer in 1993. The Tamil movie Jai Bhim, released in 2021, was based on the true story of a legal battle that Chandru fought in 1993.During his college days at Loyola College, K. Chandru joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as its student activist. During that time, he represented a student commission that was formed during the Commission inquiry started by DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi after the death of a student from Anna University after a severe lathi charge by the police. K. Chandru was then pursuing his second year and was rusticated for influencing student agitations. To complete his undergraduate course, he joined Madras Christian College in his third year. Soon after completing his graduation, K. Chandru joined CPI(M) as a full-time party worker, and he was also involved in community services till 1988. In 1973, K. Chandru started studying law. During his law studies, he was not provided with hostel accommodation as he was a student leader. Later, K. Chandru sat for an indefinite fast before the college authorities, and ultimately, got the seat.K. Chandru worked as a lawyer for eight years for a law venture named Row & Reddy. During his practising tenure, he opposed the Indian Constitution amended during the emergency (1975-1977) in India in which several communities felt deprived of their basic constitutional rights. He also attended one of the meetings based on the amendment of the constitution during the time of emergency in India. In a conversation with a media house, K. Chandru said that he told in the meeting that such a Constitution must be thrown in the Bay of Bengal. [3]Bar and Bench K. Chandru said, In fact in one of the meetings, as a first year student I said that this Constitution must go and be thrown into the Bay of Bengal. I also quoted a Chattist song that went, Hurrah for the masses, lawyers are asses The judges are going to jail. The laws are illegal, the commons are regal The judges are going to jail..According to K. Chandru, he travelled through lorries and buses all across Tamil Nadu for two years during his tenure at Row & Reddy. To enhance his legal skills, K. Chandru observed the different lifestyles, speech patterns, and cast system of the local society during his travels. He ate whatever was available to him and slept in the houses of Dalit labourers, trade union leaders, and poor farmers. K. Chandru considers these years the most productive years of his life.After leaving the legal firm Row & Reddy, K. Chandru decided to join the bar association politics of Tamil Nadu. Soon, he was elected as the Executive Member of the Advocates Association in Tamil Nadu. K. Chandru was the youngest lawyer who was chosen as a Member of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu. During the same time, there were severe lawyer-police clashes in the state that led to the strikes in Madras High Court. K. Chandru also participated in those strikes as a leader.In 1988, he opposed the interference of Rajiv Gandhi in Sri Lanka. K. Chandru was expelled from the CPI (M) party when he stated that Rajiv Gandhi had no right to break the deal with Jayawardana. However, the CPI (M) party stood in favour of Rajiv Gandhi. Soon after leaving CPI(M), he resigned as the party lawyer and trade union lawyer.In 1990, K. Chandru was promoted as a Senior Advocate by the High Court of Tamil Nadu.Justice K. Chandru practised law at the Madras High Court both in criminal and civil fields. In July 2006, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of Madras High Court. On 9 November 2009, K. Chandru was promoted as the permanent judge of the court.Justice K. Chandru is known for providing justice to several impoverished and downtrodden people in Tamil Nadu as a judge at the Madras High Court (from 2006 to 2014). K. Chandru is also known for his fight against caste discrimination and the rights of the backward communities in Tamil Nadu. Justice K. Chandru conversing with the natives of Tamil Nadu.One of his popular judgements includes the case of September 2008, when Justice K. Chandru allowed a woman to perform the rituals and ceremonies inside a temple instead of a male cousin of this woman who claimed himself to be the authorised person to conduct the Hindu rituals in that temple. While giving logic in his judgement, K. Chandru stated in his judgement that how could we debar a woman to enter a temple premises when the idol in the temple is of a Goddess. He stated, It is ironic that when the presiding deity of the temple is a Goddess, objections are being raised against a woman in performing poojas in such templesNeither provision of law nor any scheme prohibits women from performing poojas in the said temple..