Medical fellowship for Justice Kurup

The International Medical Sciences Academy (IMSA) has conferred an Honorary Fellowship on Justice K Narayana Kurup, a former judge of the Kerala and Madras High Courts. Justice Kurup is the second non-medical person to be conferred the fellowship, the other being Nobel laureate G N Hunsfield, the inventor of the CT Scan. IMSA is an associate member of WHO’s Council of International Organisation of Medical Sciences.

The fellowship was conferred by IMSA president Dr Jagadishan at a convocation held on Saturday. As per the citation, Justice Kurup was chosen for the honour because of “his landmark judgments in many a public interest litigations relating to burning public issues, the most important being the verdict which he wrote for the Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala, banning smoking in public places.” Another of Justice Kurup’s judgments, prohibiting training and display of five species of animals in circuses throughout India, has also found mention in the citation.