Supreme Court Collegium recommends new chief justices for 5 high courts

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 12

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has recommended the appointment of chief justices to high courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Uttarakhand, Gauhati and Sikkim.

The Collegium – which also included Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph — adopted five separate resolutions on October 9 recommending to the government for these appointments, the top court announced on its website

Justice NH Patil, who is currently functioning as the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, has been recommended to be appointed as the Chief Justice.

The post has been vacant since the retirement of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur in December 2017.

Similarly, Justice DK Gupta, who has been working as Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, has been recommended to be appointed as the next Chief Justice, replacing Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya who retired recently.

Justice Ramesh Ranganathan—the senior-most judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at Hyderabad—has been recommended to be appointed as Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court.

The post has been lying vacant ever since Chief Justice KM Joseph was elevated to the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Collegium also recommended Justice AS Bopanna, a senior judge from the Karnataka High Court as the next Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court. Justice Bopanna replaced Chief Justice Ajit Singh who recently retired.

For Sikkim High Court Chief Justice, it recommended the name of Justice Vijai Kumar Bist, the senior-most judge of the Uttarakhand High Court.

The post of Chief Justice at Sikkim High Court was vacant since the retirement of Chief Justice SK Agnihotri.