Supreme Court collegium recommends new Chief Justices for six High Courts

NEW DELHI: Six High Courts are set to get new Chief Justices with the Supreme Court collegium recommending their names to the government, three months after scrapping of the controversial law which sought to give a role to the Executive in appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

In its first major recommendation since October 16 last when the collegium system staged a comeback after the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the apex court panel has named six judges to head high courts of Rajasthan, Patna, Gauhati, Meghalaya, Karnataka and Gujarat.

Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court had retired on January 16, while chief justices of other high courts had retired last year.

These high courts, along with the high courts of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Punjab and Haryana and Bombay at present have officiating chief justices.

Except for Karnataka, the collegium is learnt to have recommended names of judges from other states to head these high courts.

The collegium is understood to have recommended the name of Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee to be the chief justice of the Karnataka High Court. He is at present the acting chief justice of that high court.

Sources said the recommendations will be processed at the earliest and their warrants of appointments are likely to be issued by Republic Day.