In a sudden development, present chief justice of Andhra Pradesh high court Aroop Kumar Goswami was on Friday transferred to Chhattisgarh, in less than 10 months of him being posted in Andhra Pradesh.
In his place, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra of Chhattisgarh high court has been appointed as the new chief justice of Andhra Pradesh.
Justice Goswami will be relieving Justice Mishra as the chief justice of Chhattisgarh high court soon.
The transfer of chief justices was done at the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana.
The collegium also recommended transferring of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, who is presently acting chief justice of Karnataka high court, to Telangana high court as the full-time chief justice.
At present, there is no full-time chief justice for Telangana, after the elevation of former chief justice Hima Kohli as the Supreme Court judge last month.
In her place, senior judge Justice M V Ramachandra Rao has been the acting CJ. Now, he would pave way for Justice Satish Chandra Sharma.
The transfer of Justice Aroop Kumar Goswami to Chhattisgarh and appointment of Justice Mishra a new chief justice of Andhra Pradesh is expected to cast the shadow on the case pertaining to formation of three capitals for the state in place of Amaravati.
Justice Goswami bench is supposed to take up fresh hearing of the arguments on the petition challenging the formation of three capitals on November 15, after repeated adjournments.
In fact, his predecessor Justice J K Maheshwari had commenced hearing of the arguments last year itself, but he was transferred to Sikkim abruptly on December 31.
The situation came back to square one, when justice Goswami, who replaced Justice Maheswari on January 6, declared that he would hear the petition afresh.
He could not take it up due to second wave of Covid-19 pandemic and posted the case to August 31, but deferred it again to November 15 on the request of the petitioners.
Now that a new chief justice has come, he may start the process all over again, as he is new to the subject.
So, don’t be surprised if the three capitals issue continue to be dragged to the next year!
