NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium has recommended appointment of chief justices for eight high courts, besides transfer of five chief justices and 23 judges of high courts.
The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, which met on September 16, has recommended elevation of Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Rajesh Bindal as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court and Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Justice Prakash Shrivastava as Chief Justice of Calcutta HC.
Acting Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra has been recommended as the new CJ of Andhra Pradesh High Court while Justice Rituraj Awasthi, who is now with the Allahabad High Court, has been recommended as Karnataka HC Chief Justice.
The collegium also recommended Justice Satish Chandra Sharma of Karnataka High Court as Chief Justice of Telengana HC and Justice Ranjit V More of Bombay High Court as Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice.
Justice Aravind Kumar of Karnataka High Court has been recommended as Gujarat Chief Justice while Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court RV Malimath has been recommended as MP Chief Justice.
In a collegium resolution passed on September 21, it has recommended transfer of Justice Sureshwar Thakur from Himachal Pradesh High court to Punjab and Haryana HC. The collegium has also reiterated the names for transfer of five high court judges.
The five chief justices recommended for transfer are Justice Arup Kumar Goswami from Andhra Pradesh to Chhattisgarh, Justice Mohammad Rafiq from MP to Himachal, Justice Akil Kureshi from Tripura to Rajasthan, Justice Indrajit Mahanty from Rajasthan to Tripura and Justice Biswanath Somadder from Meghalaya to Sikkim.
The resolutions have been sent to Union Law Ministry for its final approval. It is to be seen if the Centre will accept the collegium's recommendation on Justice Kureshi, given that in the past it had opposed his appointment as the chief justice of MP High Court.