NEW DELHI: The Central Government through the Ministry of Law and Justice on Wednesday notified the appointment of four judges as Chief Justice of Telangana, Gujarat, Orissa and Kerala High Courts.
According to the notification, Justice Alok Aradhe, Judge, High Court of Karnataka (Parent HC: Madhya Pradesh) has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Telangana.
Justice Subhasis Talapatra, Judge, High Court of Orissa (Parent HC: Tripura) has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa. Justice Sunita Agarwal, Judge of Allahabad High Court as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat.
Justice Ashish J Desai, Judge, High Court of Gujarat has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala, stated the Notification.
The Government also issued a notification of the transfer of Justice P Sam Koshy Chhatisgarh High Court to Telangana High Court. The Centre Government has cleared the names on the basis of a recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium.
The Supreme Court Collegium has recently recommended the name of different judges for several High Courts as the Chief Justice of High Courts including Gujarat, Telangana, Orissa and Kerala.
Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna made these recommendations in a collegium meeting held in the first week of July.
The Collegium said that these judges are fit and suitable in all respects for being appointed as the Chief Justice of the different High Court and therefore, it resolves to recommend their appointment.
According to the recommendation, Justice Sunita Agarwal was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad on 21 November 2011 and is now the senior-most puisne Judge in her parent High Court. She has been functioning there since her elevation and has acquired experience of more than 11 years of dispensing justice in the largest High Court in the country.
The High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is the largest High Court in the country. On the appointment of Justice Sunita Agarwal, the Allahabad High Court would have a second Chief Justice among the Chief Justices of the High Courts.
According to the resolution, while considering the name of Justice Sunita Agarwal, the Collegium has taken into consideration the fact that she would be the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court as presently there is no woman among the Chief Justices of the High Courts.
Justice Alok Aradhe was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh on 29 December 2009 and is now a senior puisne Judge in his parent High Court. He has been functioning, on transfer since November 2018 as a Judge of the Karnataka High Court and has acquired experience of more than 13 years in dispensing justice in two large High Courts, the collegium said.
Justice Ashish Desai became an Additional Judge at Gujarat High Court in 2011 and then a permanent judge in 2013. He was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court on February 26, of this year. He will assume office as the 38th Chief Justice of Kerala High Court.
Justice Talapatra was sworn in as Judge of Gauhati High Court on November 15, 2011. On the establishment of a separate high court for Tripura in 2013, he opted for it as his parent high court. He was transferred as Judge of Orissa High Court in June 2022. (ANI)