Centre notifies appointment of Chief Justices for four high courts

The Central Government on Sunday notified the appointments of four Chief Justices of High Courts of different states and Union Territory.

The Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification in regard to the elevation of Justice Sonia Giridhar Gokani, Judge, Gujarat High Court to Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court.

Justice Sandeep Mehta, Judge, Rajasthan High Court to Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court.

Justice Jaswant Singh, Judge, Orissa High Court to Chief Justice of Tripura High Court and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Gauhati High Court to Chief Justice, High Court of J & K and Ladakh.

Notifying the appointment of judges as Chief Justices of four High Courts, Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted, "As per the relevant provisions under the Constitution of India, the following Judges are appointed as Chief Justices of different High Courts. I extend best wishes to all of them!"

Recently, the Ministry of Law and Justice cleared the elevation of Justice Sonia Giridhar as the Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Justice Giridhar would be the first woman to head the Gujarat High Court.

The Law and Justice Ministry on Friday, while responding to the queries in Parliament, stated that as of 06.02.2023 proposals for the transfer of ten High Court Judges from one High Court to other High Courts are under various processing stages.

Judges of High Courts are transferred as per the procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure prepared in 1998 pursuant to the Supreme Court, said the Ministry reply in Parliament.

The response of the Law and Justice Ministry came in the Lok Sabha while responding to questions raised by Member of Parliament AKP Chinraj, sought the details of Supreme Court collegium recommendations on the transfer of High Court judges pending with the Government and the timeline to be followed as per the updated memorandum of procedure for Supreme Court collegium recommendations on the transfer of High Court judges?

The Union of India on Friday also notified the appointments of two more judges to the Supreme Court of India. The Government issued a notification of the appointment of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Aravind Kumar as Judges of the Supreme Court.

With their appointment, the apex court will have full working strength of 34 judges.

The Supreme Court Collegium on January 31, 2023, had recommended the names of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arvind Kumar for elevation as Judges to Supreme Court.

While recommending their names the Collegium also gave a detailed explanation of the parameters discussed. It stated that the elevation of Justice Rajesh Bindal was a unanimous decision of all Collegium members. At the same time, Justice Aravind Kumar's name had the nod of all members except Justice KM Joseph.

The SC Collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud along with Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, K.M. Joseph, M.R. Shah, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna made the recommendation.