On 19th July 2023, Droupadi Murmu, the President of India appointed 4 new Chief Justices (CJ) namely Justice Sunita Agarwal, Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai, Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Subhasis Talapatra in the High Courts (HC) of Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, and Orissa respectively.
Note: With this appointmnets, Gujarat HC is the only high court in India with a woman CJ.
Details of the Appointment:
| High Court | New CJ | Previous CJ/Acting CJ |
|---|---|---|
| Telangana HC | Justice Alok Aradhe | Justice Ujjal Bhuyan |
| Gujarat HC | Sunita Agarwal | Ashish J Desai (Acting CJ of Gujarat HC) |
| Kerala HC | Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai | Justice S V Bhatti |
| Orissa HC | Justice Subhasis Talapatra | Justice S Muralidhar |
Note:
- Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice S V Bhatti were recently elevated as judges of the Supreme Court of India.
- Justice S Muralidhar is set to retire from the post of CJ of Orissa HC in August 2023.
Background:
The appointments were approved by the Supreme Court collegium headed by Dr Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India (CJI) along with justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna at a meeting held on July 5, 2023.
Telangana HC:
On 23rd July 2023, Justice Alok Aradhe was sworn in as the CJ of the Telangana HC at Raj Bhavan, Telangana. Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, administered the oath of office.
- Prior to this appointment, he was serving as the Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) of Karnataka HC since July 2022.
- He has also served as Additional judge of the Madhya Pradesh HC and Judge at Karnataka HC.
Gujarat HC:
On 23rd July 2023, Justice Sunita Aggarwal was sworn in as the CJ of the Gujarat HC at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat will administer the oath of office.
- Justice Sunita Aggarwal is the second woman Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court after Justice Sonia Gokani(retired from the post in February 2023)
- Prior to this appointment, she was serving as the Judge at Allahabad HC.
Kerala HC:
On 22nd July 2023, Justice Ashish J Desai, who was serving as the Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) of Gujarat HC was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of Kerala High Court. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office at Raj Bhawan, Kerala.
- Chief Justice Desai is presently the 38th Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.
Orissa HC:
Justice Subhasis Talapatra has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. He will take charge as the CJ following the superannuation of the incumbent CJ Justice S Muralidhar on 7th August 2023.
Highlights:
i.Justice Desai, as the senior most puisne judge of the Gujarat High Court, had been performing the duties of the CJ of Gujarat High Court following the retirement of Justice Sonia G Gokani in February 2023.
- He will also be the only judge from Gujarat high court to represent among the CJs of high courts.
ii.Justice Talapatra is the seniormost puisne judge from his parent Tripura High Court. He is currently serving in the Orissa High Court on transfer.
- The Tripura High Court has not got representation among the CJ of High Courts since its inception in 2013.
Note: Puisne judge, judges who are ranked lower in seniority, i.e., any judge other than the Chief Justice of that court.
Key Points:
i.With the present appointments, out of the 25 HCs, Bombay and Manipur HCs will be only two high courts having acting CJs.
- Justice Nitin Jamdar acting CJ of Bombay HC and Justice M. V. Muralidaran acting CJ of Manipur HC.
ii.Along with the appointments the new CJs, the centre had also notified the transfer of justice P Sam Koshy, a judge from Chhattisgarh high court to Telangana HC.
