New Chief Justices appointed to Madras, Patna, Madhya Pradesh High Courts [Read Notifications]

The Central Government today notified the appointment of new Chief Justices to the High Courts of Madras, Madhya Pradesh and Patna. All three Chief Justices are expected to take charge of their respective offices by November 13, as per three notifications issued by the Government today.

Patna High Court’s Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi has been appointed as the next Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Since the resignation of Chief Justice Tahilramani in protest of her transfer to the Meghalaya High Court, the Madras High Court has been functioning with Justice Vineet Kothari as its Acting Chief Justice.

Born in January 1959, Justice Sahi obtained his law degree in 1985. He enrolled as an advocate the same year, following which he practiced in the Allahabad High Court, primarily on the cvil and constitutional side. He was elevated an additional judge of the Allahabad His Court in September 2004, following which he was made a permanent High Court judge in August 2005. In November 2018, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court 

Meghalaya High Court’s Chief Justice AK Mittal has been appointed the next Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Justice AK Mittal obtained his law degree from Delhi University in 1980. After enrolling as an advocate that same year, he practiced in the areas of Constitutional law, service law, company law and tax law. He was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in January 2004. Between May and June 2018, he also served as the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court. In May this year, he was appointed the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. 

Tripura High Court’s Chief Justice Sanjay Karol has been appointed the next Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, to fill the vacancy left behind in view of Chief Justice Sahi’s transfer to Madras.

Justice Karol was born in August 1961 in Kanga, Himachal Pradesh. After obtaining his law degree from the HP University, Shimla, he enrolled as an advocate in 1986. His areas of legal practice included constitutional law, tax, corporate law, criminal law and cvil law. He served as the Advocate General for Himachal Pradesh between 1998 and 2003. In 1999, he was designated as a senior counsel. In March 2007, he was elevated to the Himachal Pradesh High Court Bench. In November 2018, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court. 

The new Chief Justices have been appointed pursuant to the Collegium’s proposals in this regard issued following a meeting on October 15. Notably, the Collegium had deviated from earlier proposals made as regards these appointments.

Earlier, the Collegium had  proposed to appoint Justice Karol as the next Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice. Moreover, Justice AK Mittal had earlier been proposed to take Chief Justice’s Tahilramani’s place in the Madras High Court (prior to her resignation). However, these proposals were modified earlier this month, through two statements issued by the Supreme Court Collegium following Chief Justice Tahilramani’s resignation from her post.

The two statements had also proposed the appointment of Justice (Dr.) Ravi Ranjan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the next Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, and the appointment of Justice Mohammad Rafiq of the Rajasthan High Court as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. However, the notifications issued so far by the Government are silent as regards the same.

[Read the notification regarding the appointment of Chief Justice AP Sahi as the next Madras High Court Chief Justice]

[Read the notification regarding the appointment of Chief Justice AK Mittal as the next Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice]

[Read the notification regarding the appointment of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol as the next Patna High Court Chief Justice]