NE LEGAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI, DEC 16
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the elevation of five judges as Chief Justices of different High Courts and transfer of four Chief Justices of different High Courts, including the Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice J K Maheshwari against whom a letter was written to the Chief Justice of India.
The Collegium headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde approved the proposal to elevate Justice Dr S Muralidhar as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.
Justice Muralidhar is presently a judge at Punjab and Haryana High Court.
According to the apex court website, the Collegium, in its meeting held on December 14, has also approved the proposal to elevate Delhi HC judge Justice Hima Kohli as Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, Calcutta HC judge Justice Sanjib Banerjee as Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
Besides them, the Collegium has also okayed the proposal to elevate Allahabad HC judge Pankaj Mithal as Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand HC judge Sudhanshu Dhulia as Gauhati HC Chief Justice.
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended transfer of four Chief Justices of different High Courts, including the Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice J K Maheshwari against whom a letter was written to the Chief Justice of India.
In an unprecedented move, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, on October 6, had written to the CJI, alleging that the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Justice Maheshwari was being used to “destabilise and topple my democratically elected government.”
The Collegium headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde recommended the transfer of Justice Maheshwari as Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court and Sikkim High Court Chief Justice A K Goswami to Andhra Pradesh HC.
According to the apex court website, the Collegium in its meeting held on December 14 has approved the proposal to transfer Telangana HC Chief Justice R S Chauhan as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court while Orissa High Court Chief Justice Mohammed Rafiq has been sent to Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Besides them, the Collegium has also recommended the transfer of Justice Sanjay Yadav from Madhya Pradesh High Court to Allahabad HC, while Justice Vineet Kothari has been sent to Gujarat HC from Madras HC.
Justice Rajesh Bindal has been transferred from Jammu and Kashmir High Court to Calcutta HC, Justice Joymalya Bagchi has been sent to Andhra Pradesh HC from Calcutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma has been sent from Madhya Pradesh HC to Karnataka HC.
Apart from CJI Bobde, Justices NV Ramana, RF Nariman, UU Lalit, and AM Khanwilkar are part of the 5-judge Collegium.