SC collegium recommends transfer of chief justices of two HCs, appointment of three new CJs

The collegium recommended the transfer of Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Justice Muralidhar, whose parent high court is Delhi, was appointed as Chief Justice of Orissa HC in January last year.

The collegium also recommended appointing Justice Jaswant Singh, currently the second senior most judge of the Orissa High Court as its Chief Justice. It recommended the elevation of Bombay High Court judge P B Varale as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. Justice Alok Aradhe has been the Acting Chief Justice of the Karnataka HC since July.

For the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the collegium recommended the appointment of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, its second senior most judge, as the Chief Justice. It also recommended the transfer of current Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava has been the Acting Chief Justice of the Rajasthan HC since August this year.

Besides, the collegium recommended the transfer of three high court judges – Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra (Uttarakhand HC) to the Jharkhand HC, Justice K Vinod Chandran (Kerala HC) to Bombay HC and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh (Jharkhand HC) to the Tripura HC.