The newly appointed chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court Sanjay Kumar Agarwal on Monday restricted outgoing acting CJ justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma’s division bench to hearing appeals against orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), hours after taking oath earlier in the day.
HT has seen the order, which also assigns work to three other benches of the Jaipur High Court. Till now, the division bench led by justice Sharma was entrusted with hearing a wide range of important cases at the Jaipur bench with Sharma functioning as master of the roster. Justice Agarwal began his first day in office at the high court’s principal seat in Jodhpur, where he sat on a division bench with justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and heard cases. Justice Mehta alleged that justice Sharma misused his powers as master of the roster, selectively shifted cases from other benches to his own court and passed orders that raised questions over integrity of the decision-making process.
The Supreme Court’s justice Sandeep Mehta wrote three letters to CJI Surya Kant dated August 2, 10 and 17, seeking the immediate transfer of justice Sharma out of Rajasthan and the appointment of a chief justice from another state.
A senior office-bearer of the Bar Association familiar with the matter said the change may be linked to the controversy regarding justice Sharma’s tenure.
