The Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde has recommended appointment of five judges as chief justices of various high courts, and the transfer of nine High Court judges.
The Collegium had met on November 14. The recommendations were signed and published on Wednesday. The other Collegium members are Justices N.V. Ramana, R.F. Nariman, U.U. Lalit and A. M. Khanwilkar.
If the government agrees with the recommendations, judges of Orissa, Telangana, Madras, Jammu and Kashmir and Gauhati High Courts will be newly appointed as Chief Justices.
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Justice Sanjib Banerjee, who is the number two judge in Calcutta High Court, has been tipped for appointment as Madras High Court Chief Justice.
Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar, who was earlier this year transferred from Delhi to Punjab and Haryana High Court, has been recommended for the chief justiceship of the Orissa High Court. He has been part of many impactful decisions, including the 2009 judgment of the Delhi High Court decriminalising homosexuality. He had, in his earlier stint in the Delhi High Court, revoked the transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case and sent politician Sajjan Kumar to jail in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
The other judges who have been recommended as Chief Justices are Justice Hima Kohli of the Delhi High Court for Telangana; Justice Pankaj Mithal of Allahabad as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice; and Sudhanshu Dhulia of the Uttarakhand High Court to take over as Gauhati Chief Justice.
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In a second recommendation, the Collegium recommended the transfer of Telangana High Court Chief Justice R.S. Chauhan to Uttarakhand; Andhra High Court Chief Justice J.K. Maheshwari to Sikkim; Orissa High Court Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq to Madhya Pradesh; Sikkim High Court Chief Justice A.K. Goswami to Andhra Pradesh.
The Collegium also recommended the transfer of Justice Sanjay Yadav of Madhya Pradesh High Court to Allahabad; Justice Rajesh Bindal of J&K High Court to Calcutta; Justice Vineet Kothari from Madras High Court to Gujarat; Justice Joymalya Bagchi from Calcutta High Court to Andhra Pradesh; and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma from Madhya Pradesh High Court to Karnataka.