THE SUPREME COURT COLLEGIUM on Monday made recommendations to appoint Chief Justices at the High Courts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
The Collegium, which comprises Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’) Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath and B.V. Nagarathna, recommended that the senior-most judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Justice Sanjay K. Agarwal, be appointed as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court.
Curiously, a different Collegium, which also includes two more judges, namely Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.S. Narasimha, also made a recommendation to transfer Justice Agarwal to the Rajasthan High Court.
Though the reason for the two different recommendations, namely, first to transfer Justice Agarwal to the Rajasthan High Court and also to appoint him as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, has not been disclosed, it is understood that for the transfer of a judge, the views of the concerned state government are not needed and thus it is an expeditious process, unlike the process to appoint a Chief Justice of a High Court, where views from the State Government are also ascertained before the proposal is finally given effect by the Union Government.
The recommendation to transfer Justice Agarwal has come in the backdrop of protests against the Acting Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, after Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta reportedly accused Justice Sharma, in a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI), of manipulating the listing of cases and threatening judicial officers.
