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SC collegium passes over Justice Sharma, recommends junior judge for CJ post
The collegium’s recommendations came even as the institutional process on the allegations against Justice Sharma is still underway.
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Even as Rajasthan High Court acting chief justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma has publicly rejected allegations of corruption, nepotism and misuse of administrative powers levelled against him by Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta, the Supreme Court collegium has chosen a judge junior to him for elevation as chief justice of another high court -- a decision that assumes significance as Justice Sharma is just 23 days away from retirement.
The collegium on August 31 recommended Rajasthan High Court judge Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati as the chief justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, while separately recommending Chhattisgarh High Court judge Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal as the next chief justice of Rajasthan. The recommendations came even as the institutional process on the allegations against Justice Sharma is still underway. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has made clear that the allegations cannot by themselves be treated as findings against him.
The significance of Justice Bhati’s elevation lies partly in the seniority equation. Justice Sharma and Justice Bhati were appointed additional judges of the Rajasthan High Court on the same day -- November 16, 2016, but Justice Sharma was placed ahead of Bhati in the original order of seniority. Both were subsequently made permanent judges with effect from March 16, 2018.
Justice Sharma, born in September 1964, is due to retire on September 26, leaving him with barely three weeks in office. Justice Bhati, born in September 1970, has more than six years remaining on the bench and is due to retire in September 2032.
Thus, while the collegium’s recommendation of Bhati as chief justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court is not, by itself, a finding on any of the allegations against Justice Sharma, it has the effect of passing over a senior judge who had been ahead of Justice Bhati in the Rajasthan High Court’s seniority list and was serving as its acting chief justice.
The development comes days after Justice Mehta wrote three letters to CJI Kant -- on August 2, 10 and 17, urging that a regular chief justice from another high court be appointed to Rajasthan and that Justice Sharma be transferred out of the state.
In his letters, Justice Mehta accused Justice Sharma of “corruption”, “nepotism” and “favouritism”, besides alleging that he misused his powers as master of the roster by selectively shifting cases to his own bench and favouring “rich and influential” litigants. He also questioned a series of administrative decisions concerning the high court’s Jodhpur principal seat, designation of senior advocates and a three-day conference in Jaipur.
In his first public response to the controversy, Justice Sharma has now rejected the allegations as “unfounded, false and factless”, saying he has submitted his response along with evidence to the CJI.
Justice Sharma said “recent developments in the media and social media” prompted him to issue the statement, adding that the allegations had been made out of “animosity”. He appealed to the media, lawyers and others to wait for the CJI’s decision and said he would present his side publicly at the appropriate time, subject to the CJI’s approval.
The response comes against the backdrop of CJI Kant’s categorical assertion last week that the matter was being examined through the appropriate institutional mechanism and that Justice Sharma would have to be given a fair opportunity to respond.
That position makes the collegium’s latest recommendations particularly significant -- not because they establish the truth or otherwise of Justice Mehta’s allegations, but because they represent an independent institutional decision on the future leadership of the high courts while the allegations remain unresolved.
The collegium has, in effect, charted a new leadership for Rajasthan through Justice Agrawal and simultaneously recommended Justice Bhati, who is a judge junior to Justice Sharma in the Rajasthan seniority, to head the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. The recommendations were made at the collegium meeting of August 31.
Justice Bhati’s elevation is also notable because he is currently the second senior-most judge of the Rajasthan High Court. The original 2016 presidential notification appointing justices Sharma, Bhati, Dinesh Mehta and Vinit Kumar Mathur as additional judges specifically placed them in that order of seniority.
Justice Sharma, meanwhile, has been functioning as acting chief justice since September 28, 2025, after the retirement of Justice S Shriram.
The collegium’s recommendation of Justice Agrawal as Rajasthan’s next chief justice has already signalled a decisive change at the top of the high court. The simultaneous recommendation of Justice Bhati to head another high court adds another layer to the development, as a judge who was junior to Justice Sharma when both entered the Rajasthan High Court is now in line to become a chief justice, while Sharma appears set to retire without being recommended for the position.
The developments also come amid mounting protests by lawyers in Jaipur and Jodhpur, who have demanded that Justice Sharma be divested of his administrative responsibilities and that a regular chief justice be appointed. Justice Sharma had opted out of judicial work from September 1 to 5 as the protests intensified.
The collegium’s recommendation of Justice Agrawal was followed by a separate recommendation transferring him from the Chhattisgarh High Court to Rajasthan, allowing the proposed successor to move to Rajasthan without necessarily waiting for the entire process for his appointment as chief justice to conclude.
For Justice Sharma, therefore, the timing is stark. He has rejected the allegations against him and awaits the CJI’s institutional assessment. But 23 days before his retirement, the collegium has already recommended a new chief justice for Rajasthan and elevated a judge who entered the Rajasthan High Court after him in the seniority order to head another high court.
