CJ Swatanter Kumar promoted
The Chief Justice (CJ) of the Bombay High Court Swatanter Kumar has been elevated as a Supreme Court judge.
The Chief Justice (CJ) of the Bombay High Court Swatanter Kumar has been elevated as a Supreme Court judge.
The notification announcing his promotion arrived on Wednesday. He is likely to assume office in the Supreme Court on Friday.
The HC will now be three judges short of its sanctioned strength since two other judges — Justice S.B. Mhase and Justice Bilal Nazki — retired earlier this year. Justice J.N. Patel will be acting Chief Justice.
Born on December 31, 1947 in Delhi, Chief Justice Kumar enrolled with the Delhi bar council in July 1971. He practised as an advocate in various high courts and the Supreme Court.
He served as a judge in the Delhi and Punjab & Haryana High Courts before being sworn in as Chief Justice of the Bombay HC on March 31, 2007.
Chief Justice Kumar has to his credit various cases where he took suo moto cognizance of various issues. The first was the hit-and-run case where Bandra boy Alistair Pereira’s Toyota Corolla had run over labourers sleeping on a footpath at Carter Road in November 2006, killing seven.
It was after he cracked the whip on the state government that the latter accepted the suggestions of the Delhi High Court for speedier disposal of motor accident claims.
The CJ had taken suo moto cognizance of the Delhi HC order and asked the state government whether it was implementing it or if the court would have to pass the order.