Mendiratta straddled worlds of Executive and Judiciary

New Delhi: He has straddled both worlds of Judiciary and Executive. After a nearly two-and-a-half-year stint as Union Law Secretary, Anoop Kumar Mendiratta returns to the judicial domain as a judge of the Delhi High Court.

He is likely to take oath as a judge on Monday. Mehendiratta, a Delhi Judicial Service officer, has achieved a rare distinction of sorts in his donning the twin hats. He was the first district judge to have been appointed as the Union Law Secretary.

His return to the realm of the judiciary also sets another record -- Mehendiratta is the first Union Law Secretary to have been appointed as the judge of a high court.

Mehendiratta took his first steps in the legal world as an advocate in 1987 when he worked under Justice Valmiki J Mehta while he was a practicing advocate and later on with Pandit R K Sharma (Naseem Saheb) at Delhi High Court and district courts.

Born and brought up in Delhi, Mendiratta completed his schooling at Salwan Public School. After graduation from Delhi University, he completed his LLB from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in 1987.

As a member of the Delhi Judicial Service, he worked in different specialised jurisdictions relating to DDA, land acquisition cases, electricity, NDPS, CBI, MACT and family courts during a large part of his career.

The posting as the first joint secretary (Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs) in the Delhi government from the judicial services helped him to get actively involved in drafting and formulation of laws as well as in the process of formulation of Report for Bifurcation of judicial districts in Delhi.

The exposure to specialised jurisdictions and large administrative issues provided a platform to him to later on join the Delhi government as Principal Secretary (Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs).