N.K. Singh

Early Life and Education

Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh was born on 1 March 1963 in Imphal, Manipur. His father, the Late N. Ibotombi Singh, was a judge of the Gauhati High Court and the first Advocate General of the state of Manipur. 

Justice Singh completed his early education from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia, West Bengal. He then studied science in his Pre-University course at St. Anthony College, Shillong.

He graduated with a degree in Political Science from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University in 1983. After that, he graduated with a three-year LL. B. degree from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in 1986. 

Career as an Advocate

Justice Singh enrolled as an Advocate at the Delhi Bar Council in 1986. He later transferred his enrollment to the Bar Council of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. 

Notably, in 1992, he was selected for the Commonwealth Young Lawyers Course under the University of London.

He practised mainly in civil, criminal, constitutional, and service matters in various courts, including the Supreme Court of India, Gauhati High Court, Central Administrative Tribunal and District courts.

During his practice, he was appointed the standing counsel for several institutions, public undertakings, and government departments, including the Department of Health and Family Welfare, the Manipur Renewable Energy Development Agency (MANIREDA), Manipur Board of Secondary Education and National Insurance Company Ltd.

On 3 November 2007, Justice Singh was appointed as the Advocate General for the state of Manipur and held this position till his elevation to the Gauhati Bench in 2011. He was designated a Senior Counsel on 31 March 2008 by the Gauhati High Court. 

Career as a Judge

Justice Singh was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Gauhati High Court on 17 October 2011. About a year later on 7 November 2012, he became a Permanent Judge of the High Court. 

When the High Court of Manipur was established in 2013, Justice Singh was transferred there from Gauhati making him one of the first few judges at the newly established High Court. He served there for nearly seven years till 10 October 2018. He served as the Acting Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court twice. . His first term lasted from 1 July 2017 to 8 February 2018. His second term was for a period of three months between 23 February 2018 and 17 March 2018.

In 2018, Justice Singh participated in  the World Congress on Justice for Children, held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris over three days in May. Later in September 2018, he was part of an exclusive team of eight High Court judges who were selected to attend a specialised training program on counter-terrorism in Washington DC and Orange County, California. 

On 11 October 2018, Justice Singh was appointed as a judge of the Gauhati High Court and served till 14 February 2023. During this time, he served as the Acting Chief Justice two times. His first term as Acting Chief Justice was between 21 August 2020 to 9 January 2021. His second term as Acting Chief Justice was between 22 June 2022 to 12 February 2023. Justice Singh took oath as the Chief Justice of the J&K High Court on 15 February 2023. 

On 11 July 2024, the Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud recommended Justice Singh to be elevated as a judge to the top court. The Collegium highlighted that he would be the first judge at the Supreme Court from the state of Manipur. 

The Union government notified Justice Singh’s appointment to the Supreme Court along with that of Justice R. Mahadevan from Tamil Nadu on 16 July 2024. 

Notable judgements

In Sital Mandal v The Union of India (2022), a bench comprising Justices Singh and Nani Tagia held that once a foreign tribunal declares a person to be Indian, the person’s nationality cannot be questioned again in subsequent proceedings. 

In Haidar Ali v The Union of India (2022), another case concerning citizenship, Justice Singh held that a person could not be denied registration under Assam’s NRC simply because he failed to establish a link with all his relatives.