JUSTICE KOHLI IS NOW SC JUDGE
Telangana High Court Chief Justice Hima Kohli was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of India after President Ram Nath Kovind formally approved her elevation.
Telangana High Court Chief Justice Kumari Hima Kohli has been elevated and appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. President Ram Nath Kovind approved the recommendations made by Supreme Court collegium to elevate Justice Kohli and eight others to the apex court, and the Centre issued warrants accordingly on Thursday.
Justice Kohli will be a judge of the apex court till September 1, 2024, when she turns 65.
As judge of the Delhi high court and later as Chief Justice of the Telangana high court, Justice Hima Kohli had left her mark in adjudicating cases. She was known for quick disposal of cases. She preferred to dispose of cases after taking fewer adjournments.
Justice Kohli preferred discipline among advocates. In a span of eight years as judge, she never allowed any advocate to take adjournments on petty reasons. There must be a valid reason for seeking adjournment of hearings, she insisted.
There were instances when advocates were penalised with costs when they failed to file counters even as they had been given a reasonable time.
Justice Kohli, it is noted, never hesitated to examine the advocates’ genuineness. She slapped huge costs recently on an advocate who tried to bluff the court. The advocate had intimated the court through his junior that he was unwell and hence would stay off court proceedings, but was found physically attending another court.
As Chief Justice, Justice Kohli also took a very serious view of public servants and the authorities ignoring court orders, which keeps happening in these times. She wasn’t lenient to any officer facing a contempt case.
Notably, Justice Kohli initiated a new approach of directing public servants to do social service for a few days in order to set aside the jail sentence given to them in contempt cases. In most cases, she never set aside the costs imposed on the public servants.
Whenever a public servant filed a contempt appeal, she made it a point to direct the Registry of the High Court to place before the court the record of contempt cases the public servant faced in the past.