Bombay HC to get new chief justice from Calcutta HC | India News - Times of India

NEW DELHI: After two months of uncertainties with most senior judge tendering resignation and second senior-most getting transferred to Meghalaya, Bombay High Court will get a new Chief Justice from Calcutta HC to succeed present CJ B P Dharamdhikari, who retires on April 27. The Supreme Court Collegium headed by CJI S A Bobde decided to recommend to the Union government to appoint Justice Dipankar Datta of Calcutta HC as the CJ of Bombay HC. Because of lockdown, the Collegium members did not meet at one place as has been the practice and decided the new CJ of Bombay HC through circulation of the file. Among the oldest and biggest, the Bombay HC has been in the eye of some unsavoury events for past two months. When Collegium headed by CJI Bobde attempted to transfer senior-most judge S C Dharmadhikari, he resigned on February 15 despite having more than two years tenure left. It was conveyed to the public that the most senior Judge did not want to shift out of Mumbai and that he resigned to avoid moving to another state. Five days later, the SC collegium transferred second senior most Judge, Justice S V More, to Meghalaya HC. On February 24, the Collegium appointed Justice B P Dharmadhikari as CJ of HC for a little over two month tenure. If resignation of Justice SC Dharmadhikari raised concern amidst legal circles about the Collegium system being insensitive to Judges' personal difficulties, the transfer of Justice More to Meghalaya HC, sources said, raised concern about the transfer procedure not being scrupulously followed by the Collegium as one of the consulting SC Judge had opposed the transfer. Justice Rafiq was appointed as CJ of Meghalaya in November last year.