New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS): The Centre on Friday issued a notification appointing Justice S. Vaidyanathan as the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court.

"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice S. Vaidyanathan, Judge of the Madras High Court, to be Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office," said the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

The Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud-led Supreme Court Collegium in November 2023 forwarded its recommendation to the Centre to fill in the vacancy in the office of the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court which had arisen consequent upon the retirement of Justice Sanjib Banerjee.

Justice Vaidyanathan was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court in October 2013. He is the senior most puisne Judge in his parent high court. Before his elevation as a judge, he got enrolled at the bar in 1986 and practised at the Madras High Court and various Tribunals. His area of practice was labour, service, criminal and company matters.

In a statement released on the website of the apex court, the SC Collegium had noted that during his tenure of 10 years as a judge of the high court, he authored 1,219 reported judgments, of which 692 were delivered during the last 5 years. "He has acquired considerable experience in dispensing justice in one of the largest high courts in the country…He is a competent judge with humility, judicial temperament and unimpeachable integrity," it had said.