NEW DELHI: The
Supreme Court collegium
on Thursday finalised names of judges for recommendation to the Union government to appoint them as
Chief Justices
of the
high courts
of Allahabad, Rajasthan,
Punjab and Haryana
, Gauhati and Jharkhand.
The collegium comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai met on Wednesday evening and deliberated upon a host of names before deciding to recommend
appointment
of Rajasthan HC acting chief justice Manindra Mohan Srivastava as the regular CJ of that high court. Justice Srivastava was appointed as a judge of Chhattisgarh HC in December 2009.
Interestingly, the collegium selected the two most senior judges of Rajasthan HC — Justices Vijay Bishnoi and Arun Bhansali — to head the Gauhati HC and Allahabad HC respectively. The Allahabad high court, the largest in the country with a sanctioned judge strength of 160 but functioning at present with 91 judges, also has the highest case pendency among the 25 HCs.
Coincidentally, both Justices Bishnoi and Bhansali took oath as judges of the Rajasthan HC on the same day— January 8, 2013. Justice Bishnoi will head the Gauhati HC, which has a sanctioned strength of 24 and at present functioning with 23 judges. On Justice Bishnoi's appointment as CJ of Gauhati, the HC would attain full sanctioned strength.
Justice Sheel Nagu, who was appointed a judge of Madhya Pradesh HC in May 2011, has been selected by the collegium to head the Punjab and Haryana HC, which has a sanctioned strength of 68 judges but functioning at present with 57 judges.
Orissa high court’s acting CJ Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, who was appointed as a judge in June 2013, has been selected by the collegium to succeed his senior colleague from Orissa HC Sanjaya Kumar Mishra as the Chief Justice of Jharkhand HC. Justice Mishra, who took oath as CJ of Jharkhand HC in February this year, is scheduled to retire on December 29.
The collegium on November 6 had recommended appointment of Justices S Vaidyanathan of Madras HC as CJ of Meghalaya HC, Justice Chakradhari Saran Singh of Patna HC as CJ of Orissa HC and Justice Ritu Bahri of Punjab and Haryana HC as CJ of Uttarakhand HC. However, the recommendations have not yet been notified by the Union government.
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