New Chief Justices were appointed to six high courts on Sunday, June 20, including to the Telangana High Court. The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry tweeted about these appointments. While five HC judges were elevated as Chief Justices, the chief justice of the Telangana High Court, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, was transferred to the Delhi High Court in the same capacity. Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, who is currently a judge in Telangana High Court, was elevated as chief justice there. His parent high court is Gauhati.
Justice Vipin Sanghi from the Delhi High Court was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court. Similarly, Justice Amjad A Sayed of the Bombay High Court was made Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Justice SS Shinde of the Bombay High Court was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. Justice Rashmin M Chhaya from the Gujarat High Court was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court. The Delhi High Court had been without a regular Chief Justice after Justice D N Patel retired and Justice Sanghi had been the acting Chief Justice since March 13.
Their names were recommended by the Supreme Court collegium last month. They are likely to assume their new charge in the coming days.
Earlier in February, the Supreme Court Collegium approved the elevation of 12 advocates and judicial officers as judges in the Telangana High Court. The Collegium approved the proposal for the elevation of seven advocates and five judicial officers as judges, including four women. The advocates elevated as judges were Kasoju Surendhar alias K Surender, Chada Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Surepalli Nanda, Mummineni Sudheer Kumar, Juvvadi Sridevi alias Kuchadi Sridevi, Mirza Safiullah Baig and Natcharaju Shravan Kumar Venkat. The judicial officers who got the elevation were G Anupama Chakravarthy, MG Priyadarshini, Sambasivarao Naidu, A Santosh Reddy and Dr D Nagarajun. This took the number of judges in Telangana High Court to 30 including the Chief Justice, while still leaving 12 vacancies. In June 2021, the bench strength of the Telangana High Court was increased from 24 to 42 judges.