Supreme Court collegium recommends 9 High Court chiefs; awaits clearance from centre

Source:- financialexpress.com

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar recommended 9 names to the government to take over as Chief justices of High Courts. This was a break from the earlier tradition of appointing acting chiefs for months at a time. If the government approves of the recommendations and clears them, it would be the highest number of appointments at the same time. According to IE, the names recommended for the High Court chief justices appointments are: Justice Hemant Gupta for Madhya Pradesh High Court; Justice Abhilasha Kumari for Tripura High Court; Justice B D Ahmed for Jammu and Kashmir High Court; Justice Pradeep Nandarajog for Rajasthan High Court; Justice Rajendra Menon for Patna High Court; Justice T Vaiphei for Hyderabad High Court; Justice H G Ramesh for Madras High Court; Justice T B Radhakrishnan for Chhattisgarh High Court and Justice P K Mohanty for Jharkhand High Court.

These recommendations by the Supreme Court bring forward a significant step within a long battle between the judiciary and the government over the authority to appoint judges. A tug of war had ensued between the judiciary and the government after the Supreme Court had liquidated the National Appointments Commission (NJAC) and resurrected the collegium. Following the move by the SC that government had blocked all the major recommendations by the collegium for some reason or another. This had resulted in 8 vacancies in the Supreme Court. CJI KHehar’s predecessor T S Thakur had not made a single recommendation for the judgeship of the apex court since December 2015.

The acting chief justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Rajendra Menon would now go on to become the regular chief in the Patna High Court. Justice Abhilasha Kumari, Gujarat High Court judge since 2006 would go on to become the chief justice of Tripura High Court. Similarly, Justice T Vaiphei, CJ of Tripura HC would be moved to Hyderabad High Court. According to reports, two senior judges of the 9 recommended names are to be appointed as the chief justices of Delhi High Court. Justices B D Ahmed and Pradeep Nanadarajog have been serving from their positions in Delhi High Court since December 2002. Likewise, Kerala HC judge T B Radhakrishnan is expected to take the position of the next CJ of Chhatisgarh HC, the current CJ of which, Deepak Gupta is expected to be promoted as a judge in the Supreme Court if the government accepts the recommendation sent by the SC collegium.