Justice Gopal Ballav Pattanaik was born on 19 December 1937 in the city of Cuttack, state of Orissa, India.
He attended Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and Allahabad University and earned his law degree from M.S Law College, Utkal University in Orissa.
In 1962 He enrolled as an advocate for the High Court of Orissa and practised in civil, criminal, constitutional and business cases in Orissa High Court. He also appeared before the Supreme Court of India.
In 1971 he was appointed to the Standing Counsel for the State Government of Orissa. In 1974 he became an Additional Government Advocate, a post he would hold for four years. In 1983 He was elevated to the bench of the Orissa High Court as a permanent judge. In 1995 he was appointed the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. Several months later, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of India. He went on to occupy the highest judicial post in the country as the Chief Justice of India on 8 November, 2002 .
When Pattanaik took over as the Chief Justice of India it appeared that he would not be able to achieve much in the administration of the judiciary, in view of his retirement on December 19. Yet, he began a momentous chapter in the history of Indian judiciary by putting into practice the `in-house procedure' evolved in 1997 to deal with allegations of misconduct against members of the higher judiciary.
Some of the well published judgements of Justice Pattanaik include
Justice Pattanaik was a member of the Indo British and Indo-U.S. judicial exchange programme. He visited Britain and the United States and participiated in work shops and seminars with the judges of the House of Lords in Britain and the U.S Supreme Court, respectively.
He now resides in New Delhi and is active as an arbitrator.
