Raipur, May 6: Justice PR Ramachandra Menon was Monday sworn in as Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court. Governor Anandiben Patel administered him the oath of office and secrecy at a function here at Raj Bhawan. He was earlier a judge in the Kerala High Court. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his cabinet colleagues, former chief minister Raman Singh and senior officials were present on the occasion. Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Names of 5 Judges as Chief Justices of High Courts.

Chief Justice Menon's wife Preeta Menon, his family members as well as judges from the High Courts of Chhattisgarh and Kerala attended the function.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the function, Chief Justice Menon listed three priorities, which included clearing cases pending for over five years.

"My priority will be to clear all the pending cases which are more than five years old. The second priority will be, I will try to handle cases which are more (related) with the persons in custody. The third is to promote an alternative dispute resolution mechanism so that state will have a clean slate after a few months, a few time or after a few years as a case may be to wipe out the entire backlog," he said.

The office the Chhattisgarh CJ had fallen vacant after the resignation of Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi following his appointment as judicial member in the Lokpal. As per the information available on Kerala High Court website, Chief Justice Menon, born on June 1, 1959, obtained Law degree from the Government Law College, Ernakulam in Kerala. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra Recommends Justice Ranjan Gogoi As Next CJI.

He enrolled as advocate on January 8, 1983 and started practice in Labour, Insurance and Constitutional Laws at Ernakulam, it said. He was sworn-in as Additional Judge of High Court of Kerala on January 5, 2009 and later on December 15, 2010 appointed as permanent Judge of the High Court of Kerala, it added.