Supreme Court for mass transfer, elevation of High Court judges

Nearly after a year, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur has recommended mass transfer/elevation of various high court judges, thus paving the way for filling vacancies of judges in the high courts.

The chief justice of Orissa high court D.H. Waghela has been shifted as chief justice of Bombay high court. Justice Dinesh Maheswari of Allahabad high court has been elevated as chief justice of Meghalaya high court. Justice Ajit Singh of Rajasthan high court has been elevated as chief justice of Gauhati high court. Justice Vineet Saran of Karnataka high court is being made chief justice of Orissa HC.

Justice S.K. Mittal of Punjab and Haryana high court is being made chief justice of Rajasthan high court. Justice S.K. Mukherjee, acting CJ of Karnataka high court is being made as regular CJ of the same high court. Justice R. Subhash Reddy of AP/Telengana high court has been elevated as CJ of Gujarat HC and justice Hemant Gupta from Punjab & Haryana high court is being made acting CJ of Patna high court.

All the appointments were put on hold after the enactment of the National Judicial Appointments Commission in early 2015. But after the law was struck down in October 2015, the court asked the collegium to go ahead with the appointments. The logjam in the process of appointments resulted in over 400 vacancies to be filled.

In December 2015, the Constitution bench asked the Union government to come out with a fresh Memorandum of procedure in consultation with the CJI. Pursuant to this, law minister Sadananda Gowda wrote to all the CMs and chief justices of high courts to send suggestions for improvement in the collegium system.