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The central government has finally approved the appointment of new Chief Justices to the High Courts of Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura. Around eleven High courts were functioning with either acting chief justice and the appointment can be seen as a major move by the government to curb the increasing burden on higher judiciary due to lack of judges. The appointment was made on the basis of recommendation made by the collegium led by Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra.
Justice Abhilasha Kumari of the Gujarat High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court and Justice Tarun Agarwala of the Allahabad High Court has been appointed Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, with effect from the date they assumes charge of office respectively. He replaces Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who has been transferred to the post of Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, and is expected to assume office on or before February 20, 2018.
Justice Maheshwari replaces Acting Chief Justice HG Ramesh, and his appointment of denotes a departure from convention, in that he will be superseding Justice H.G. Ramesh (currently acting Chief Justice of Karnataka HC Court), who features higher on the seniority list. Such a recommendation was made by collegium since the latter on an earlier occasion had chosen to deny himself the Chief Justiceship of High Court.
In another noted departure, hitherto Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic, has been appointed as the Chief Justice to the Kerala High Court, which is also his parent High Court. The Supreme Court Collegium had summarised the reason for his appointment thus:
“It is made clear that the Collegium while making the above recommendation is conscious of the fact that Mr. Justice Antony Dominic hails from Kerala High Court and is due to retire in May this year. In this connection, the Collegium has invoked the provision of the Memorandum of Procedure which provides for elevation of a puisne Judge as Chief Justice in his own High Court if he has one year or less to retire.”
Justice Ajay Rastogi of the Rajasthan High Court will be taking over as Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court, replacing Chief Justice T Vaiphei, who is set to retire soon.
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