The Centre on Saturday night notified the appointment of eight new chief justices to high courts, including Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal as chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court, amid a controversy over acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma after Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta accused him of “corruption”, “nepotism”, “favouritism” and misuse of administrative powers.
Justice Agrawal’s appointment could now pave the way for the Rajasthan High Court to have a regular chief justice after nearly a year, potentially easing one aspect of the controversy even as Justice Mehta’s separate demand for Justice Sharma’s transfer out of Rajasthan remains to be acted upon. The notification came four days after the Supreme Court collegium recommended Justice Agrawal, currently a judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court, for the Rajasthan post. The collegium had also separately recommended his transfer from Chhattisgarh to Rajasthan, a step that would facilitate his movement to the new court. Justice Mehta had also urged the CJI to appoint a regular chief justice from another high court. The CJI has indicated that the allegations against a sitting judge would have to be dealt with through the established institutional mechanism and that Justice Sharma would have to be given an opportunity to respond. Justice Sharma has since submitted a detailed response to the CJI, denying the allegations as baseless and factless and stating that he had supported his rebuttal with evidence. But it does not, by itself, resolve the separate issue raised by Justice Mehta regarding Justice Sharma. Justice Agrawal’s move to Rajasthan also comes at a particularly significant juncture.
The Rajasthan appointment assumes significance against the backdrop of three letters written by Justice Mehta to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on August 2, 10 and 17, in which he alleged corruption, nepotism, favouritism and administrative impropriety against Justice Sharma and sought his transfer out of the state. He was appointed acting chief justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court following the retirement of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha on September 4, pending completion of the process for his move to Rajasthan. The appointment of Justice Agrawal, therefore, addresses the immediate question of who will head the Rajasthan High Court on a full-time basis.
The other appointments notified on Saturday are Justice V Kameswar Rao as chief justice of the Patna High Court, Justice Ravindra V Ghuge as chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi as chief justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra as chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra as chief justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Justice Alpesh Yashwant Kogje as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati as chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.
