Sikkim HC row derails senior judge’s elevation as chief justice

NEw DelhiThe sublime margaret court collegium on th recommended young chief justices for quint high courts, including Sikkim, where the senior-most judge appears to have lost her chance to head the state judiciary following a controversy over a series of administrative decisions taken against her predecessor within hours of his retirement.According to people aware of the developments, Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai, the senior-most judge of the Sikkim High Court, issued a flurry of contentious administrative directions soon after assuming charge as acting chief justice on December 15, targeting her predecessor, Justice Biswanath Somadder, who had retired just a day earlier after a four-year term.Justice Rai not only undertook a sweeping overhaul of the high court registry and the district judiciary through transfers and fresh assignments, but also issued directions for the immediate withdrawal of security and facilities, including an official car and driver, that had been provided to Justice Somadder.The people cited above said the retired judge was also asked to vacate the official residence he was occupying, with a deadline of three days being set. “One of the file notings also proposed an audit of all administrative directions issued by chief justices over the last seven years,” said one of the persons referenced.The controversy soon reached the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant (CJI) and other senior judges of the top court took note of the situation and were compelled to intervene swiftly to de-escalate what was emerging as a serious institutional crisis, particularly in view of the imminent eviction of Justice Somadder and the broader implications of the other orders.One person familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times that Justice JK Maheshwari, who had served as chief justice of the Sikkim High Court for nearly eight months before his elevation to the Supreme Court in August 2021, stepped in to defuse the situation.“Justice Maheshwari used his good offices and his previous association with the Sikkim High Court to calm matters down, following which Justice Rai withdrew some of her orders. The official vehicle and driver were restored to Justice Somadder, and the eviction order was also put on hold,” the person said.Although the immediate crisis was contained, the episode is understood to have played a decisive role in Justice Rai not being favoured for appointment as the regular chief justice of the Sikkim High Court. The collegium, comprising CJI Kant and justices Vikram Nath and JK Maheshwari, instead recommended Justice A Muhamed Mustaque, a senior judge of the Kerala High Court, for the post.With her retirement due in July 2026, Justice Rai was under consideration for appointment as a full-time chief justice of the same court. Under the memorandum of procedure governing appointments and transfers in the constitutional courts, a judge with less than a year left before retirement may be appointed chief justice of their parent high court, whereas all other such appointments are required to be made from outside.Another person pointed out that the rift between Justices Rai and Somadder may have its roots in developments during the tenure of former CJI Sanjiv Khanna. The collegium headed by Justice Khanna had, at one stage, held informal discussions on the possible elevation of Justice Rai to the Supreme Court, but Justice Somadder wrote a letter to the then CJI objecting to any such proposal.Meanwhile, the collegium on Thursday also recommended the appointment of justices Manoj Kumar Gupta, Revati P Mohite Dere, MS Sonak and Sangam Kumar Sahoo as chief justices of the high courts of Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Patna, respectively. However, the names of the new chief justices for the Calcutta and Rajasthan High Courts, both of which have been functioning under acting chief justices for over two months, are yet to be finalised.