New Delhi: In view of the delay by the government in notifying the Supreme Court’s proposal since September last year to transfer Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar to the Madras High Court, the apex court collegium on Wednesday withdrew its earlier proposal And made a fresh recommendation for the same position. ,
In a meeting called by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud – who heads the collegium – a high-powered appointments panel, made up of five judges of the apex court, deliberated on the delay and the fact that Justice Muralidhar has four terms till retirement. Less than a month left.
The panel, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, KM Joseph, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi, recommended a new name for the post of Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay HC – Sanjay V. Gangapurvala, Chief Justice of the Madras HC.
According to the resolution of the Collegium uploaded on the Supreme Court website on Wednesday night, “The Collegium resolved to transfer Dr Justice S Muralidhar, Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa to the Madras High Court on September 28, 2022. The recommendation is pending with the Government of India since then without any response. Dr Justice Muralidhar is now leaving office on 7th August 2023, which has less than 4 months to go. In view of this delay, the resolution recommending the transfer of Dr Justice S Muralidhar to facilitate the appointment of a permanent Chief Justice in the Madras High Court by appointing Justice SV Gangapurvala as its Chief Justice (sic) is withdrawn Is.
Read also: SC says no data to support government’s claim that same-sex marriage is ‘urban elitist’ concept
delay all around
Collegium sources told ThePrint that Justice Muralidhar is not the only file pending with the government in the Chief Justices category. In February this year, the collegium had approved the appointment of Justice Sabina as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Then she was the acting Chief Justice there. However, the government never notified her appointment and she retired as Acting Chief Justice on 19 April.
Instead, the government on Tuesday notified the appointment of the next senior-most judge from the Himachal Pradesh HC – Justice TS Chauhan – as Chief Justice with effect from April 20.
Similarly, the government did not go ahead with the SC Collegium’s decision to appoint Justice Jaswant Singh as Chief Justice of the Orissa HC. The proposal was made to the government along with recommending Muralidhar as CJ of the Madras HC in September 2022.
In January this year, the Collegium withdrew its earlier resolution and made a fresh recommendation for Justice Singh, in which it decided to appoint him as the Chief Justice of the Tripura HC. Finally, in February, the government issued a notification in his name. However, his tenure as CJ was less than 10 days.
The collegium also resolved that its earlier decision to transfer Justice T. Raja of the Madras High Court to the Rajasthan High Court be “implemented at the earliest”. The panel had on November 24, 2022 rejected Justice Raja’s request to reconsider his proposal to be transferred out of Madras.
Meanwhile, the collegium of top three judges on Wednesday also recommended the appointment of Justice Ramesh D. Dhanuka as the Chief Justice of the Bombay HC, following the elevation of Justice Dipankar Dutta as an SC judge in December last year. had become empty.
Dhanuka is next in seniority to Gangapurvala, who is the acting chief justice there and will move to Madras if the central government notifies the collegium’s proposal.
Noting that the office of the Chief Justice of the Kerala HC is going to be vacant very soon, it recommended Justice SV Bhatti, who is “the senior-most judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and is currently on transfer, to be transferred to the Kerala High Court”. as the senior-most judge”, as its new Chief Justice. He will take over on April 24 after the retirement of the current Chief Justice S Manikumar.
It was also recommended to appoint Justice Augustine G Masih, who is the senior-most judge in his parent HC – the Punjab and Haryana High Court – as CJ of the Rajasthan HC, which fell vacant following the elevation of then CJ Pankaj Mithal Were. scheduled caste.
Justice MS Ramachandran, currently serving in the Punjab and Haryana HC but belongs to Telangana, has been recommended for the post of Himachal Pradesh HC. His name was cleared as there was no representation among the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Telangana as per the resolution of the Collegium.
(Editing by Zinnia Ray Chowdhury)