HC unlikely to get full-time chief justice

The Delhi High Court is unlikely to get a full-time chief justice for the next three months with the high-powered Supreme Court collegium dropping the idea of elevating Punjab and Haryana High Court’s (P&HHC) senior judge justice AK Mittal to the position.

Justice Mittal, who is third in seniority at P&HHC, was tipped to take over as the chief justice in Delhi after justice G Rohini retired on April 14. However, two SC judges — who served as the chief justice in P&HHC – objected to justice Mittal’s appointment as he would have superseded his senior justice SS Saron there.

The collegium then decided to wait until justice Saron’s retirement in September. Justice Mittal would then be moved out to Delhi, sources said.

This means justice Gita Mittal would continue as the acting chief justice of the HC.

In April, the SC collegium of top three judges, chief justice JS Khehar, Justice Dipak Misra and Justice J Chelameswar, proposed to elevate justice Mittal to the Delhi HC, while it thought of appointing justice Saron as chief justice of Himachal Pradesh HC.

However, for reasons unknown the panel dropped the proposal to move justice Saron. But it wanted to go ahead with justice Mittal’s appointment, which was opposed by justice Ranjan Gogoi and justice AK Sikri. Their views were taken because both the judges were P&HHC chief justice.