Bombay HC gets new chief justice for 4 days

Five judges were on Friday elevated as chief justices of high courts with one of them due to retire on May 30.

The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry issued separate notifications announcing the appointment of acting chief justice of the Bombay High Court Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala as the chief justice of the Madras High Court and Justice Ramesh Deokinandan Dhanuka as the chief justice of the Bombay High Court.

Justice Dhanuka is at present a judge of the Bombay High Court.

He is due to demit office on May 30, upon attaining the age of 62 and will have a tenure as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court of effectively four days.

Justice Augustine George Masih of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court.

Justice Mamidanna Satya Ratna Sri Ramachandra Rao, of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Justice Sarasa Venkatanarayana Bhatti of the Kerala High Court as been appointed as Chief Justice of the same court.

On Wednesday, Justice S Vaidyanathan was appointed as the acting chief justice of the Madras High Court.

Justice T Raja, who was also the acting chief justice of the Madras High Court, had demitted office on Wednesday evening on attaining the age of 62 years.

In April, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended that Justice Gangapurwala be made the chief justice of the Madras High Court.

The collegium had pointed out that the office of the Chief Justice of High Court of Bombay has been lying vacant for quite some time, consequent upon the elevation of Justice Dipankar Datta to the Supreme Court. Therefore, appointment to that office was required to be made.

It had recommended the name of Justice Dhanuka for elevation as chief justice of the Bombay High Court.

While Supreme Court judges retire at 65, high court judges retire at the age of 62 years.

Justice Gangapurwala will retire in May next year.

In the recent past, Justice Sonia Gokani was elevated as the chief justice of the Gujarat High Court and Justice Jaswant Singh as chief justice of the Tripura High Court. They too had brief tenures.