President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justice Munishwar Bhandari as the Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court as per Article 223 of Indian Constitution. He will take over the reins on June 26 following the retirement of incumbent Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav on June 25.
He is senior most judge of the Allahabad High Court.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 223 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, senior-most Judge of the Allahabad High Court, to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice of that High Court with effect from 26th June, 2021 consequent upon the retirement of Shri Justice Sanjay Yadav, Chief Justice, Allahabad High Court,” the notification stated.
Career
Prior to being appointed to the bench, he practiced in Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur and Jaipur, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jaipur.
He had also practiced in the Supreme Court in matters related to constitution, civil, service, labour, criminal and arbitration matters. He specialised in constitutional, service, labour and arbitration matters.
Standing Counsel for
- Railways,
- Rajasthan Road Transport Corporation,
- Nuclear Power Corporation,
- State Election Commission,
- Rajasthan University,
- All the Government Electricity Companies of Rajasthan,
- Jaipur Development Authority,
- Jaipur Municipal Corporation,
- Rajasthan Housing Board,
- Ganga Nagar Sugar Mills Ltd. and
- Rajasthan Agricultural University
He was elevated as a judge to the Rajasthan High Court on July 5, 2007. Later, he was transferred to Allahabad High Court and took oath as a HC judge on March 15, 2019.
Retiring Age of Judges
Chief Justice of High Court – 62 years
Judges of High Courts in India – 62 years
Chief Justice of India – 65 years
Supreme Court judges – 65 years
The UPA government’s law minister M Veerappa Moily had on August 13, 2010 introduced the Constitution (114 Amendment) Bill with a proposal to increase the retirement age of High Court judges from present 62 years to 65 years.
The Constitution was amended to increase the retirement age of HC Judges from 60 to 62 years in 1963.
In April 2021, the Supreme Court gave life to the Article 224A of the Indian Constitution which has been dormant for 58 years. With that move, the apex court allowed the Chief Justice of all high Courts to appoint retired judges as ad hoc judges for the coming five years keeping in view the pendency of cases.
As per the top court, 57 lakh cases are pending in the 25 High Courts across the country at a time when the vacancies for the post of high court judges is constantly over 40 per cent in the last two years.
