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Supreme Court collegium suggests elevation of three as CJs
The Collegium comprises Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit has recommended names of three high court judges for elevation as chief justices of Orissa, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir high courts. It also recommended transfer of two high court chief justices and three judges.
As per the recommendation of the collegium released on Friday, names of justices Jaswant Singh, Prasanna B Varale, and Ali Mohammad Magrey have been recommended for elevation as chief justices of Orissa, Karnataka and J&K high courts, respectively.
The collegium, also comprising justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in its meeting on Wednesday, further recommended the transfer of chief justice of Orissa high court S Muralidhar and chief justice of J&K high court Pankaj Mittal as chief justices of Madras and Rajasthan HCs, respectively.
The recommendations have been sent to the Union government for approval, following which appointments will be made by the President.
In a statement uploaded on the apex court’s website, the collegium said: “The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 28th September, 2022 has recommended transfer of the following Judges of High Courts…”
Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra will be transferred from Uttarakhand HC to Jharkhand HC, Justice K Vinod Chandran from Kerala HC to Bombay HC, and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh from Jharkhand to Tripura HC, added the apex court statement.
Two of the three judges recommended for elevation — justices Jaswant Singh and Ali Mohammad Magrey — will be taking over as chief justice in the respective high courts where they are currently serving. Justices Singh and Magrey are the senior most judges in the Orissa and J&K high courts, respectively.
Justice Singh, who was appointed as a judge at his parent high court of Punjab and Haryana in December 2007, was transferred to the Orissa high court in October last year. Justice Magrey became a permanent judge of his parent high court at J&K in March 2013.
Justice Prasanna B Varale, who has been recommended for elevation as the chief justice of Karnataka high court, is presently a judge of his parent Bombay high court, where he got elevated as a judge in July 2008. Prior to that, he was a lecturer at Ambedkar Law College in Aurangabad from 1990 to 1992 and joined practice on the criminal side representing Maharashtra as additional public prosecutor and later as additional standing counsel for the Centre in the high court.
Justice S Muralidhar was elevated as a judge of the Delhi high court in May 2006 and has since delivered several landmark decisions. He was part of the Delhi high court bench that decriminalised homosexuality in 2009 by declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as violative of fundamental rights of citizens. Later, the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. However, in a direct proceeding brought by affected individuals, a five-court constitution bench removed the criminality attached to homosexuality.
Justice Muralidhar was transferred to Punjab & Haryana HC in March 2020, amid a controversy that erupted as the notification of his transfer on February 26 coincided with an order passed the same day pulling up the Delhi Police for not registering criminal cases against three leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their alleged hate speeches.
He was sworn in as chief justice of Orissa high court in January 2021. During his tenure, his work on e-courts and digitalising subordinate judiciary got noticed by the Supreme Court.
Justice Pankaj Mittal, who originally hailed from the Allahabad high court where he got elevated as an additional judge in July 2006 and became a permanent judge in 2008, took oath as the chief justice of J&K high court in January 2021. Earlier last month, the Supreme Court had sought a confidential report from justice Mittal to verify allegations of nepotism in appointment of staff in the J&K high court as claimed in a plea filed by J&K Peoples Forum, an NGO.
All decisions regarding the elevation and transfer of judges were taken by the collegium in its meeting on September 28. The decisions come days after the collegium recommended the elevation of chief justice of Bombay HC, Justice Dipankar Datta, as a judge of the apex court.
