EXCLUSIVE: Supreme Court Justice Sandeep Mehta asks CJI Surya Kant to replace Rajasthan HC Acting Chief Justice for misusing office

Supreme Court Justice Sandeep Mehta has asked Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant to appoint a Chief Justice from another state to head the Rajasthan High Court "with immediate effect".

In letters dated August 2, August 10 and August 17, 2026, and exclusively accessed by Bar & Bench, Justice Mehta accuses Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma of manipulating case listings in favour of rich litigants and misusing his administrative powers ahead of his retirement, due later next month.

Justice Sharma was appointed a Rajasthan High Court judge in November 2016 and transferred to the Patna High Court in 2022. When he sought repatriation on health grounds, the Collegium headed by then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud declined the request in March 2023 and sent him instead to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In May 2025, a fresh Collegium resolution recommended his return to Rajasthan. He went on to become Acting Chief Justice, a post Justice Mehta's letter says he has now held "for more than last 10 months."

In his first letter, dated August 2, Justice Mehta wrote that during his visits to Rajasthan, "numerous Judges of Rajasthan High Court have met me and expressed their anguish at the behaviour of Mr. Justice S.P. Sharma, who frequently threatens his colleague Judges of retributive action including transfer claiming his closeness with Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India."

Justice Mehta's letters draw on a recent Supreme Court observation - made by a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi - in an unrelated case. They had flagged a growing trend of judges passing orders for extraneous considerations on the eve of retirement, and judges attempting to "hit sixes" before retiring.

Applying that phrase to Justice Sharma, Justice Mehta writes that he "seems to be possessed of a licence to hit sixes ever since the day on which he took over as the Acting Chief Justice."

As evidence, the letters cite two division bench orders of the Rajasthan High Court. In a batch of appeals over what Justice Mehta calls "priceless lands" in the city of Udaipur, the cases were listed before Justice Sharma's own bench at the Jaipur seat, despite an earlier judgment by Justice Sharma himself holding that such principal bench matters could not be moved there.

The August 17 letter also alleges that a sitting Rajasthan High Court judge - Justice Uma Shankar Vyas - complained to fellow judges of vindictive conduct by Justice Sharma towards his wife, a senior district judiciary officer. Justice Vyas purportedly claimed that Justice Sharma held up the inauguration of a new Jodhpur court building, acting on his "whims and caprices," causing what Justice Mehta calls an "unpardonable" loss to the institution.

A separate complaint, written by Advocate Pooja Tripathi to Supreme Court Justice Vikram Nath and copied to Justice Mehta among 16 others, alleges that Justice Sharma used his position to secure permanent Lok Adalat appointments in Jaipur and Ajmer for persons close to him, including a childhood friend and the spouses of two district judges.

The same complaint alleges that Justice Sharma has forwarded the names of 4 women advocates for elevation to the High Court. Justice Mehta has said that "none of these four lady advocates are in active practice," each said to be linked to a senior lawyer or retired judge close to him.

Justice Mehta's letters describe efforts underway "to confirm him as the Chief Justice in Rajasthan" despite what he calls "damning evidence" and ask the Collegium to "forthwith transfer Mr. Justice S.P. Sharma out of Rajasthan to save the Institution from further carnage."

In his last letter to the CJI, he states,

"I have been repeatedly requesting you to take a decision for appointing a Chief Justice from another State to Rajasthan High Court so that this unfortunate situation can be prevented. Continued ignorance of the request is, in my opinion, wholly against the interest of the institution."

Justice Mehta was elevated to the Rajasthan High Court on May 30, 2011. He was transferred as Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in February 2023, before his elevation to the Supreme Court on November 9, 2023.