(Chief Justice AA Kureshi and Chief Justice Indrajit Mohanty)
Chief Justice of Tripura High Court, Justice Akil A Kureshi is set to be transferred to Rajasthan High Court as its Chief Justice. Sources said, the Supreme Court Collegium has taken the decision at a meeting held on September 16.
Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court Justice Indrajit Mohanty is likely to be transferred to Tripura High Court.
The collegium headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and comprising justices UU Lalit and AM Khanwilkar is learnt to have decided to recommend 8 new Chief Justices to high courts across the country and transfer at least four current Chief Justices and over 27 high court judges.
Justice Kureshi, whose parent high court is the Gujarat High Court, did not feature in the list of nine recent appointments made to the Supreme Court in August despite being No. 2 in the All-India List of seniority for judges of high courts.
The decisions of the Collegium and Central government over Justice Kureshi have been mired in controversy over the past few years.
Justice Kureshi, a senior judge originally from the Gujarat High Court, started his law practice in 1983 after obtaining an LL.B. degree that same year.
He was appointed as an additional judge of the Gujarat High Court in March 2004 and was confirmed as a permanent judge in 2005.
He was then transferred to the Bombay High Court as a puisne judge in November 2018 just before he was set to take over as acting Chief Justice of that court. Eventually, he served as acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court for around two weeks before he took over as judge of Bombay High Court.
Subsequently, in May 2019, the Collegium recommended the appointment of Justice Kureshi, who was serving at the Bombay High Court, as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The Central government sat on the recommendation for some time before it sent back Justice Kureshi’s file in August 2019.
The Collegium gave in when on September 20, it modified its earlier resolution and resolved to appoint Justice Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court instead of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Later, when the Supreme Court Collegium recommended nine High Court judges for elevation to Supreme Court last month, Justice Kureshi was left out though he was second in all India seniority of High Court judges.
(With inputs from Bar and Bench, others)
