Chief Justices appointed to 4 High Courts: Law Minister

New Delhi, Feb 12: The Centre on Sunday notified the appointments of four Chief Justices of High Courts of different states and Union Territory.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday announced the fresh appointments on Twitter. Justice Sonia Giridhar Gokani, Judge of the Gujarat High Court was appointed its chief justice. She was appointed acting chief justice of the Gujarat High Court on Friday after its chief justice Aravind Kumar was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Justice Sandeep Mehta, Judge, Rajasthan High Court has been appointed as chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.

Justice Jaswant Singh, Judge, Orissa High Court has been elevated as chief justice of the Tripura High Court. Justice N Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Gauhati High Court has been made chief justice of the High Court of J-K and Ladakh.

The Ministry of Law and Justice had recently cleared the elevation of Justice Sonia Giridhar as the Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. She becomes the first woman to head the Gujarat High Court.

The Law and Justice Ministry on Friday, while responding to the queries in Parliament, stated that as of 06.02.2023 proposals for the transfer of ten High Court Judges from one High Court to other High Courts are under various processing stages, ANI reported.

Judges of High Courts are transferred as per the procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure prepared in 1998 pursuant to the Supreme Court, said the Ministry reply in Parliament. The response of the Law and Justice Ministry came in the Lok Sabha while responding to questions raised by Member of Parliament AKP Chinraj, sought the details of Supreme Court collegium recommendations on the transfer of High Court judges pending with the Government and the timeline to be followed as per the updated memorandum of procedure for Supreme Court collegium recommendations on the transfer of High Court judges?

The Union of India on Friday also notified the appointments of two more judges to the Supreme Court of India. The Government issued a notification of the appointment of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Aravind Kumar as Judges of the Supreme Court. With their appointment, the apex court will have full working strength of 34 judges. The Supreme Court Collegium on January 31, 2023, had recommended the names of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arvind Kumar for elevation as Judges to Supreme Court.

With inputs from agencies