Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Oct 10: Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi has been appointed the new chief justice of Karnataka high court.

The union ministry of law issued a notification on Saturday, October 9 promoting eight judges to the positions of chief justices of various high courts (HC) in the country.

Justice Awasthi is a senior judge of the Allahabad high court. Born on July 3, 1960, he graduated with a degree in law from Lucknow University in 1986. He began his career as an advocate in 1987, practising in civil, service and education matters at the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court. He served as assistant Solicitor General of India at Lucknow before being appointed as an additional judge in 2009. He became a permanent judge in 2010.

Justice Satishchandra Sharma, who was the temporary CJ of Karnataka has been transferred as CJ of Telangana high court.

Justice Rajesh Bindal, who was temporary CJ of Kolkata HC has been transferred to Allahabad HC as CJ. Justice Ranjith More has been nominated as CJ of Meghalaya HC, Justice Prakash Srivastava as CJ of Kolkata HC, Justice R V Malimutt as CJ of Madhya Pradesh HC, Justice Aravind Kumar from Karnataka as CJ of Gujarat HC and Justice Prashant Mishra as CJ of Andhra Pradesh HC.

This is the first time in the history of the law ministry that so many CJs were appointed in a single day. Justice Akhil Qureshi who was CJ of Tripura HC has been transferred as CJ of Rajasthan HC. Justice Kureshi was dropped from the list of nine judges who were to be promoted. These promotions are done based on the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium.

Law minister Kiran Rijiju said that files of all nominations were verified in record time. He also said that both the union government and the SC collegium share the same opinion with regard to filling of vacant positions.