A.T Markose

Anithottam Thomas Markose (20 June 1920 – 15 October 1977) was an Indian jurist at the International Labour Organization and Director of Indian Law Institute (1957–1963). He was the first editor of Journal of the Indian Law Institute, an academic journal. On completing his Intermediate year at the Union Christian College of Aluva in Kerala, in keeping with the remarkable secular ethos of the time, from 1939 to 1944, he did his LLB and LLM at the Banares Hindu University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in North India. A.T. Markose proceeded to become the first LLD from the Lucknow University under Professor R.U Singh.

A.T. Markose first started off as a practising lawyer in Ooty with Advocate Mankavil George Matthew. He married a daughter of M.G. Matthew, Mary Mathew, in 1946 and they went on to have four daughters. His daughters are Shanta Matthai, Sheila George and Rani Koshy. His third daughter is the UK-based economist and academic, Sheri Marina Markose.

Career and achievements In 1956, A.T. Markose published his magnum opus "The Judicial Control of Administrative Action In India", which was digitized in December 2005 and remains a reference book for LLM in India.

Upendra Baxi has referred to A.T. Markose (Cochin) as one of the Five Horsemen, who included G.S Sharma (Jaipur), Anandjee (Benares), R.U Singh (Lucknow) and T.K Tripathi (Delhi)) as innovators "who through their diverse labours, brought to a decisive end the Ancien régime of Indian legal education".

His legacy of work as Founder Director of the Indian Law Institute (1957–1963) and large number of publications in the areas of Public Law, Administrative Law and Constitutional Law, is acknowledged to have helped the fledgling India democracy to strengthen the rule of law. and the reconnoitring visits made to the US in the context of setting the agenda for the Indian Law Institute. While remaining a Professor and Dean of the Law School in Cochin University, where he was the moving force behind the Legal Studies Centre set up there in 1962, A.T. Markose also pursued an international career. He served as Deputy Judge of the International Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization in Geneva. have professed a lifelong admiration and affection for their mentor.

A.T. Markose was a polymath with literary interests. In an interview in 2011, the poet and writer, Jeet Thayil, the nephew of A.T. Markose, said that his uncle introduced him to the poetry of Baudelaire.

Memorial Events Since 2011, Cochin University for Science and Technology (CUSAT), School of Legal Studies has been organizing the A.T Markose Memorial Moot Court Competition in honour of their founding professor. In 2020, the A.T. Markose Memorial Moot Court Competition has been jointly organized as the 1st Surana and Surana & CUSAT School of Legal Studies event. In 2011, A.T. Markose was posthumously honoured as Distinguished Law Teacher by the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and the Madhava Menon Institute of legal Advocacy.