Supreme Court Collegium Recommends New Chief Justices For High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Guwahati
The recommendations, forwarded by the CJI Ranjan Gogoi led Collegium, are to be cleared by the Union Law Ministry.
New Delhi, October 12: The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising four other apex court judges whose seniority lie only next to him, have recommended the appointment of new Chief Justices for the High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Guwahati.
For Guwahati High Court, the Collegium has recommended Justice AS Bopanna, the senior judge from the Karnataka High Court. Whereas, Justice Vijai Kumar Bist, the senior-most judge of the Uttarakhand High Court, has been appointed as the next Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. CJI Ranjan Gogoi Says No to Leave For Judges on Workdays to Clear Pending Cases.
Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, the senior-most judge of Hyderabad High Court, has been recommended to preside over as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court. The post has been lying vacant since the elevation of Justice KM Joseph to Supreme Court.
For the Calcutta High Court, the Collegium has recommended the elevation of Justice DK Gupta, who is a senior judge at the same court.
Meanwhile, Justice NH Patil, who is currently the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, has been recommended to be elevated as the full-time Chief Justice of the Bombay HC.
The recommendations are to be cleared by the Union Law Ministry. Over the past four years, several instances have come to light where the government and the judiciary have not reached a common ground on the elevation of some judges.
The Centre has long been pushing for the passage of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill, which would form a panel comprising of the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Justice of India and other eminent jurists for the appointment of judges. The legislation, though rushed through the Lok Sabha, was struck down by the apex court on grounds that it may breach the independence of the judiciary.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 12, 2018 06:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).