President Pranab Mukherjee appoints Chief Justices in four High Courts

President Pranab Mukherjee on 10 March 2017 appointed Chief Justices for High Courts in Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Hemant Gupta was appointed as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court. Before this appointment, he was serving as the Acting Chief Justice of Patna High Court . Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court P K Mohanty was appointed as the Chief Justice of Jharkhand itself.

Justice Navniti Prasad, a judge in Patna High Court, was appointed as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court.  Justice T B Radhakrishnan, Acting Chief Justice of Kerala High Court, was named as the Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court.

Background
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar recommended nine names to the government for taking over as regular High Court Chief Justices. This was a much-anticipated move to appoint regular chief justices for High Courts instead of having acting chief justices for months.

Around 201 proposals by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment of judges in the high courts are at various stages of processing.

As on 1 March 2017, the 24 high courts were working with 642 judges, while the approved strength is 1079, a shortfall of 437.