Patna, July 22: Ravi Swaroop Dhavan, who retired as the chief justice of Patna High Court yesterday, will be best known for his four-and-a-half years of “judicial activism”.

“To ensure good governance in the state, especially in the face of criticism of misrule or what is called ‘jungle raj’, has been his genuine concern,” said Patna High Court lawyers.

Dhavan, who received a warm send-off yesterday from the various lawyers’ associations, went around visiting them all before making way for Justice Nagendra Rai to take charge today as the acting chief justice.

Many lawyers recalled Dhavan’s contributions to the country with his “no-nonsensical approach” to issues concerning the rule of law.

“One of his major achievements was the revival of the local bodies through panchayati raj and ward council elections in the state after period of 24 years,” lawyer Arvind Kumar said.

Most lawyers here believe that Dhavan’s lasting legacy would be his efforts to shake up the state and central politics with his tirade against the politician-criminal-police nexus.

The later part of Dhavan’s tenure saw his untiring efforts to cleanse the electoral system by directing that jailed criminals be banned from contesting elections.

Senior advocate Vasant Kumar Chowdhary, who fought earnestly in this regard, holds the ex-chief justice’s efforts in high esteem.

Dhavan’s insistence and categorical rulings have of late sent many powerful criminals back to the prisons from hospitals.

His commitment to improve the state education system has been equally praiseworthy. Taking suo moto cognisance of some newspaper reports on the deteriorating education system, he turned them into a PIL and set off a series of cases on the government to undo the damage.

In a recent landmark ruling, Dhavan quashed the state government’s changed recruitment policy for primary teachers by which it opened the job to any non-trained teacher and ruled that only duly trained persons could be appointed.

Even as Dhavan brooked no political interference in the judiciary, he consistently held sway over the state powers and made many senior officials appear before the court on many occasions.

Be it the state chief secretary, the home commissioner or the director-general of police — all had to face contempt of court charges.

However, Dhavan’s “activist” did not go down well with everyone.

“He was obsessed with lecturing and sermonising on any topic,” a lawyer maintained.

“I wonder what actually made him (Dhavan) soften his tough stand on the government. Sometime ago he praised the chief minister of Bihar and put the entire blame for the overall failure on the state bureaucracy,” a journalist with a national daily observed in Patna.