This is an archive article published on May 11, 2018
J&K HC judge Mohammad Yaqoob Mir is new Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court
The Meghalaya HC currently has just one judge, Justice Sudip Ranjan Sen, who is also officiating as the acting Chief Justice. Its sanctioned strength is four judges.
THE CENTRE on Thursday appointed Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, the most senior judge of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, as the Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court.
The Meghalaya HC currently has just one judge, Justice Sudip Ranjan Sen, who is also officiating as the acting Chief Justice. Its sanctioned strength is four judges.
“In the exercise of powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, to be the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office,” said the notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
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The appointment is significant as the Supreme Court Collegium, on April 19, while recommending Justice Mir’s name, had cited regional representation. “Justice M Yaqoob Mir is the senior-most Judge from Jammu & Kashmir High Court and has been serving there since his elevation as a Judge of that High Court in November 2007. Having regard to all relevant factors, the Collegium finds Justice M Yaqoob Mir suitable in all respects for being appointed as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. The Collegium resolves to recommend accordingly. While making the above recommendation, the Collegium has also taken into consideration the fact that for quite some time there has been no Chief Justice from Jammu & Kashmir High Court,” it had said.
Last week, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta had pointed out the shortage of judges in high courts in the North-East. On May 5, Attorney General K K Venugopal had assured that the appointments would be made soon. On May 4, the ministry also cleared the appointment of Arindam Lodh, member of bar, as a Judge of the Tripura High Court.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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The Meghalaya HC currently has just one judge
