Judiciary Watch: 6 High Courts get new CJs, 465 vacancies despite active month for collegium

The month of February saw a large number of movements within the higher judiciary. As a result of multiple transfers, as many as six High Courts have new Chief Justices..All of these courts were previously being headed by acting Chief Justices in light of the suspension of collegium appointments..The first of these movements was DH Waghela J., who was appointed Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, after being transferred from the Orissa High Court. Former Karnataka High Court judge Vineet Saran J. replaces him as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court..Dinesh Maheshwari J. of the Allahabad High Court was elevated as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. Justice SK Mukherjee, who was serving as acting Chief of the Karnataka High Court, has now been made the Chief Justice..SK Mittal J. of the Punjab & Haryana High Court was appointed Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. Ajit Singh J. was appointed Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, after being elevated from the Rajasthan High Court..As far as other transfers go, RR Prasad J. has been transferred to the Manipur High Court from the Jharkhand High Court, whereas Hemant Gupta J. of the Punjab & Haryana High Court has been transferred to the Patna High Court..The transfer that was most mired in controversy was Justice CS Karnan’s, from one chartered court to another. Just weeks ago, the former Madras High Court judge quite inexplicably stayed the order transferring him to the Calcutta High Court. The controversial judge now seems to have accepted his fate, after he put down his behaviour to “mental frustration resulting in the loss of his mental balance.”.Another interesting development is that the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad seems to have increased its sanctioned strength from 49 to 61. This is perhaps in preparation for the split of the High Court into two separate ones for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a suggestion that has been mulled over ever since the formation of the latter. Further, all the additional judges of the High Court have been made permanent..A similar move has been seen at the Bombay High Court; as many as 19 additional judges have been appointed as permanent judges. The Madhya Pradesh High Court as well has seen five additional judges appointed as permanent ones..High CourtSanctioned StrengthNo. of vacancies% of vacanciesHigh Court of Judicature at Hyderabad613557.3%Allahabad High Court1608855%Madras High Court754053.33%Rajasthan High Court502652%Karnataka High Court623150%.The vacancies across the 24 High Courts now stand at 465 this month; that means more than 44% of the sanctioned posts stand vacant. And with five High Courts having more than half of their posts lying vacant, the CJI TS Thakur collegium’s work has only just begun..That is not all, the Centre has recently forwarded the Memorandum of Procedure for future appointments to Chief Justice Thakur. The MoP contains a number of interesting suggestions including having three Bar elevations in the Supreme Court.