President Appoints Eight High Court Chief Justices

President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday notified the appointment of eight judges as Chief Justices of various High Courts. The appointments were announced by Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal via X, noting they were made in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. Among the appointments, Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge of the Bombay High Court was named Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi of the Allahabad High Court was appointed Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

Other appointments include Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Valluri Kameswar Rao as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, and Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Additionally, Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra was appointed to the Chhattisgarh High Court, Justice Alpesh Yeshwant Kogje to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, and Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The appointment of Justice Agrawal to the Rajasthan High Court is particularly notable due to ongoing controversy. Justice Sandeep Mehta of the Supreme Court wrote to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant raising concerns about the conduct of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma. While center-left framing describes this as a controversy involving conduct and lawyer protests, center-right framing explicitly characterizes the row as involving allegations of corruption, nepotism, and favoritism. Justice Sharma has denied these charges, calling them baseless and submitting a response to the CJI. Justice Agrawal's appointment provides the Rajasthan High Court with a regular chief justice before Justice Sharma retires on September 26, though it does not resolve the separate institutional considerations regarding Justice Sharma's potential transfer.