5 HCs get chief justices

NEW DELHI: Chief justices to five high courts were appointed on Tuesday, bringing down the number of courts functioning without full-time chief justices to six. Justice Abhilasha Kumari, daughter of former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Virbhadra Singh, has been appointed the chief justice of the Manipur HC. She is currently a judge of the Gujarat HC. Justice Antony Dominic has been elevated in the Kerala HC and would now head it, according to a notification issued by the law ministry. Justice Dinesh Maheshwari has been appointed the chief justice of the Karnataka High Court. He is currently heads the Meghalaya HC.

Justice Ajay Rastogi, who was hitherto serving in the Rajasthan HC, has been appointed the chief justice of Tripura high court, while Justice Tarun Aggarwala will move from the Allahabad HC to head the Meghalaya high court.

Before the new appointments were notified on Tuesday evening, the nine high courts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka and Manipur were working without regular chief justices.

According to the procedure for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, and the 24 high courts, the apex court collegium recommends the names of candidates to the government which, in turn, either accepts the proposal or returns it for reconsideration.