Gopal Ballav Pattanaik

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 Chief Justice of India.

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.

Justice Patnaik was a member of the committee that formulated and recommended the Restatement of Values of Judicial Life, a code of judicial ethics for judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. The recommendations were adopted by the Supreme Court of India in a Full Court meeting on May 7, 1997. This charter was subsequently ratified and adopted by the Indian judiciary during the Chief Justices’ Conference in 1999. It serves as a guiding framework for the ethical conduct and integrity of the higher judiciary in India.