IndiaNEWS

States awaits new chief justices, 4 more to retire this year

India is faced with an embarrassing judicial situation, where in there isn’t enough chief justices appointed in the country. Atleast 6 states’s judiciary systems are run by acting Chief Justices and 4 more are about to retire this year. Acting Chief Justices take over the responsibilities of the top judge of the State judiciary as a temporary arrangement. It is meant to fill the vacuum for a short time till the formalities for the appointment of a regular Chief Justice are completed.

This is the situation even as the statistics on judicial vacancies in high courts look bleak at 413 out of a total approved strength of 1079 in all the 24 high courts as of September 1, 2017. In some high courts, vacancies are more than the actual number of judges working. In Karnataka HC, there are 35 vacancies compared to 27 working judges. In Calcutta HC, there are 41 judicial vacancies to 31 working judges. The same is the case in Manipur, which has three vacancies to two working judges.

However, Justice Ranganathan has been the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since July 30, 2016. That is well over a year.

Justice Mhatre has been Acting Chief Justice since December 1, 2016; Justice Mittal since April 14, 2017; Justice Karol since April 25, 2017; Justice Patel since June 10, 2017 and Justice Singh since July 1, 2017.

The year will also see four crucial retirements in the State judiciaries. Justice Mhatre is set to retire on September 19

This will be followed by the retirement of Karnataka HC Chief Justice S.K. Mukherjee on October 9. Kerala HC Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh will retire on November 5.

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