Collegium appoints chief justices of four HCs

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the appointment of chief justices of four high courts and made the transfer of four judges including one from the Karnataka High Court.

The Collegium also made public its resolution on the elevation of Chief Justice M R Shah of Patna High Court, Chief Justice Hemant Gupta of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy of Gujarat High Court and Chief Justice Ajay Rastogi of Tripura High Court to the top court. If recommendations are ratified by the Centre, the number of judges in the Supreme Court would rise to 28 against the sanctioned strength of 31.

It recommended the appointment of Justice Govind Mathur as chief justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice S K Seth as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice A P Sahi as chief justice of the Patna High Court and Justice Sanjay Karol as chief justice of the Tripura High Court.

Among others, the Collegium headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi also recommended for transfer of Justice R S Chauhan, judge, Karnataka High Court to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Court. It also sent a proposal for transfer of Justice Indrajit Mahanty, judge of Orissa HC and Justice A A Kureshi, judge of Gujarat HC to Bombay HC. Acceding to his request, it also transferred Justice Alok Aradhe, judge, Jammu & Kashmir High Court to Karnataka HC.

The Collegium also recommended for repatriation of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur from Rajasthan to Punjab and Haryana HC, Justice Pavankumar B Bajanthri from Punjab and Haryana to Karnataka HC, Justice Satrughana Pujahari from Madras to the Orissa HC and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad from Orissa HC to Jharkhand HC.