Centre Notifies Transfers Of Chief Justices Of Patna, Meghalaya & Tripura HCs

In notifications issued today, the centre notified appointment of:

1. Justice A P Sahi, Chief Justice of Patna High Court as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court;
2. Justice A K Mittal, Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court; and
3. Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice of Tripura High Court as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.

The Collegium had recommended their transfers on October 15.

Justice Sahi enrolled as an Advocate in the Allahabad High Court after obtaining his LLB degree in 1985. He practised mainly on the Civil & Constitutional side, and also worked as counsel for large number of Educational Institutions including. He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court in September 2004 and was made a permanent Judge in August 2005. He swore in as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court on November 17, 2018.

Justice Sahi will fill up the vacancy created by the resignation of the former Madras HC Chief Justice V K Tahilramani. She had resigned in protest of the collegium proposal to transfer her to Meghalaya HC.

Justice Mittal enrolled as an Advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1980 and practised in Civil Law, Revenue Law, Writ Side. He worked for the Department of Income Tax in the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 1982 and continued as such upto 1991. He was elevated to the Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana on January 9, 2004 and he functioned as an Acting Chief Justice therein between 4th May 2018 and 2nd June 2018 besides also functioning as Executive Chairman of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority for more than 3 years. He was appointed as the Chief Justice in Meghalaya High Court on May 22, 2019.

Justice Mittal was earlier proposed to be appointed as the Chief Justice of Madras HC in place of Justice Tahilramani.

Earlier, the Collegium had recommended Justice Akil Kureshi as the CJ of MP HC. This proposal was later modified to propose Justice Kureshi's appointment as CJ of Tripura HC, after communications from the Department of Justice.

 Justice Karol enrolled as an Advocate in the year 1986. He practiced in various Courts, including the Supreme Court of India, in Constitutional, Taxation, Corporate, Criminal and Civil matters. He was designated as Senior Advocate in the year 1999 and he remained on the Senior Panel for Central Government, Supreme Court of India. He discharged Constitutional duties as an Advocate General of Himachal Pradesh from 1998 to 2003. He was Elevated as Judge of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, on 8th March, 2007 and assumed charge of the office of the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh with effect from 25th April, 2017 and worked as such till 5th October 2018. Has was appointed as the Chief Justice of High Court of Tripura on November 9, 2018.