The Central Government has notified the appointment of new Chief Justices to the High Courts of Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura, following recommendations made to this effect by the Supreme Court Collegium a few days back.

Justice Abhilasha Kumari of the Gujarat High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court, with effect from the date she assumes charge of office.

Justice Tarun Agarwala of the Allahabad High Court has been appointed Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office.

He replaces Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who has been transferred to the post of Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, and is expected to assume office on or before February 20, 2018.

Justice Maheshwari replaces Acting Chief Justice HG Ramesh, who was appointed to the post in October last year. The appointment of Justice Maheshwari denotes a departure from convention, in that he will be superseding Justice Ramesh, who features higher on the seniority list.

In another noted departure, hitherto Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic, has been appointed as the Chief Justice to the Kerala High Court, which is also his parent High Court. The Supreme Court Collegium had summarised the reason for his appointment thus:

“It is made clear that the Collegium while making the above recommendation is conscious of the fact that Mr. Justice Antony Dominic hails from Kerala High Court and is due to retire in May this year. In this connection, the Collegium has invoked the provision of the Memorandum of Procedure which provides for elevation of a puisne Judge as Chief Justice in his own High Court if he has one year or less to retire.”

Justice Ajay Rastogi of the Rajasthan High Court will be taking over as Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court, replacing Chief Justice T Vaiphei, who is set to retire soon.

The Centre is yet to approve five other recommendations made by the Collegium. These include the appointments of Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi as Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Justice Aniruddha Bose as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Surya Kant as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice TB Radhakrishnan as Chief Justice of the Telangana & Andhra Pradesh High Court.

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