NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana has recommended to the Centre that Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari be appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Justice Bhandari, whose parent high court is the Rajasthan HC, is at present the Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
Justice Bhandari assumed office as the ACJ of Madras High Court on November 22, 2021 after then CJ Sanjib Banerjee was transferred to Meghalaya High Court. The decision of the Supreme Court Collegium to transfer Banerjee, who had served just about 10 months, to a relatively low profile High Court led to outrage among a section of the legal fraternity in Chennai.
Hailing from Rajasthan, Justice Bhandari was appointed as judge of the Rajasthan High Court in 2007. He was transferred to Allahabad High Court in 2019 where he served until being transferred to Madras HC. As a lawyer, he had handled a wide range of legal issues before becoming a High Court judge. His focal areas were Constitutional, civil, service, labour, criminal and arbitration issues. He also practiced at the Supreme Court.
Heading the first bench of Madras High Court, Justice Bhandari has been showing no leniency on certain matters, particularly encroachments of waterbodies. He has been forthright in making government authorities implement the orders of the court. He is due to retire in September this year.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday extended greetings to Justice Bhandari. Conveying heartful wishes, he said in a social media post: “My government is committed to support all your efforts in furtherance of judicial administration.”
Complete probe in peacock idol case: Madras HC
Chennai: The first bench of Madras High Court headed by Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on Monday ordered the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department and the Idol Wing of CB-CID to complete the investigations into the theft of a peacock idol in Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple by six weeks. The order was passed on a petition filed by Srirangam-based activist Rangarajan Narasimhan. The peacock idol was stolen in 2004 and a duplicate idol was installed in its place. Narasimhan lodged a complaint with the police in 2018 and later filed a petition before the court.
Petitions challenging bar tenders binned
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed petitions filed by Bar Owners Association challenging the floating of new tenders to allocate bars attached to TASMAC liquor outlets in eight districts. Rejecting the plea of bar owners that there was lack of transparency in floating tenders and demanding compensation for the loss during pandemic lockdown period, Justice C Saravanan dismissed all the petitions. The bar owners approached the court last year over invitation of fresh tenders on December 14 and 15. They said they were denied access to tender forms posted on the website of TASMAC and district managers were refusing to distribute the forms as well. However, the government had denied such allegations and maintained that tender forms were available for all.The bar owners had also stated that they had to incur huge loss as the TASMAC outlets remained closed for about 15 months because of the pandemic.
The collegium also recommended 17 names for appointment as judges in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa high courts. Of the 17, seven advocates were recommended as judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court; four advocates to the Odisha High Court; and three advocates to the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Besides, three judicial officers were recommended for promotion as judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
“The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 29th January, 2022 has approved the proposal for elevation of the following advocates as Judges in the Andhra Pradesh High Court: Konakanti Sreenivasa Reddy, Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda, Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao, Satti Subba Reddy, Ravi Cheemalapati and Vaddiboyana Sujatha,” the statement said.
The collegium also approved proposals for elevation of six as judges in the Madhya Pradesh High Court and four in the Orissa High Court. The proposed names of advocates for elevation as judges in the Orissa High Court are V Narasingh, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Biraja Prasanna Satapathy and Sri Raman Murahari.
Elevation
Madras HC
Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari as Chief Justice
Odisha HC
Bar to Bench
1. V Narasingh
2. Sanjay Kumar Mishra
3. Biraja Prasanna Satapathy
4. Sri Raman Murahari a.k.a
M S Raman
Madhya Pradesh HC
Bar to Bench
1. Maninder Singh Bhatti
2. Dwarka Dhish Bansal
3. Milind Ramesh Phadke
Promotion of judicial officers
1. Amar Nath Kesharwani
2. Prakash Chandra Gupta
3. Dinesh Kumar Paliwal
Andhra HC
Bar to Bench
1. Konakanti Sreenivasa Reddy
2. Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad
3. Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda
4. Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao
5. Satti Subba Reddy
6. Ravi Cheemalapati
7. Vaddiboyana Sujatha
Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2022/feb/01/supreme-court-collegium-proposes-judge-munishwar-nath-bhandari-as-madras-hccj-2413772.html
