Cjiinaweof govt’spromptnod Kureshi to be acting chief justice of Guj HC till his transfer
In 48 hours, Centre elevates four HC chief justices
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said he was “overawed” by the speed with which the government cleared the names of four high court chief justices for elevation to the Supreme Court.
“I am myself overawed as you are,” the CJI said at a media interaction on Friday. He was responding to a question on what had changed after he assumed charge to prompt the government to act swiftly.
“I do not know myself. We had sent the recommendation on Wednesday morning and by evening we were informed that the medical (tests) of the four was done. How it happened? I do not know. You must find it out from the law minister,” CJI Gogoi quipped. He was accompanied by justice SA Bobde who is next in line to become the CJI after Gogoi demits office next year.
The four judges, whose names the Supreme Court Collegium cleared on Monday, took oath on Friday morning. They are justices Hemant Gupta , Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi.
The CJI said the appointment of justice AS Dave as the Gujarat High Court acting chief justice was a “mistake”, which was rectified later. “It was a mistake. Mistakes do happen. The same has been corrected...,” he said, when asked who was the acting chief justice of the HC as two government notifications were issued.meanwhile, CJI Gogoi said the apex court was looking at the possibility of translating its judgements from English into regional languages, including Hindi, so that litigants are aware of what transpired in their case.
“This is unacceptable… somebody who lost his property and everything else on the basis of a document cannot read it… They will have to approach a lawyer who will charge fees,” the CJI said. He, however, added that the major problem that the court was facing in this was the acute “shortage of manpower”.
CJI Gogoi, who has been trying to reduce case backlogs, said 14 benches would assemble every Monday and Friday after the Diwali break. Supreme Court Collegium clears the names of justices Hemant Gupta, R Subash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi
Collegium sends recommendation to law ministry at 11 am
Law ministry sends the recommendation to President’s House
Medical examination of the 4 judges is conducted President’s House reverts to law ministry, issues warrant of appointments in the name of the 4 judges
Four judges sworn in as SC judges on Friday morning NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court judge Akil Kureshi will hold the charge of acting chief justice till he is transferred to the Bombay high court, chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, adding that a previous order that effectively put justice Kureshi — who will be the senior-most judge in the Gujarat HC — under a different acting justice was a mistake.
The clarification came even as lawyers at the high court went on an indefinite strike to oppose justice Kureshi’s transfer to Maharashtra, where he will be the fifth senior-most judge. The bar “believes that such a transfer is unjustified and certainly has no connection with better administration of justice... it [instead] impinges upon independence of judiciary”, according to a statement by the Gujarat High Court Advocate Association (GHAA).
Justice Kureshi’s transfer to Bombay High Court was recommended by the SC Collegium on Monday. But the collegium order also said that he will be trans- ferred on or after November 15. This meant he would remain in Gujarat HC till November 14.
On Thursday, the law ministry issued a notification saying justice A Dave, a judge junior to justice Kureshi, would take over as acting chief justice of the Gujarat HC. The chief justice of a court is by convention the most senior.
The order triggered protests among lawyers. On Friday morning, the law ministry issued another notification ‘superseding the earlier notification’ and appointed justice Kureshi as the acting chief justice of Gujarat high court.
It seems the second notification “in supersession” of the earlier one came after the CJI took up the matter.
Gujarat high court chief justice’s post fell vacant after justice R Subhash Reddy was elevated to Supreme Court on Friday.
Justice Kureshi, who joined bar in 1983 and was appointed additional judge in Gujarat in 2004, has been a part of benches that delivered verdict in sensitive cases, such as a 2002 Gujarat communal riots case and a Lokayukta appointment case.