IMPHAL, March 20: With the historic opening of a separate Manipur High Court on March 23, the Union Government has decided to place a Chief Justice and four Permanent Judged in the soon to be established Manipur High Court.
The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice Joint Secretary, Anil Kumar Gulati in an official order issued under the direction of the President of India on March 19 has said that the state High Court will have a Chief Justice with four Permanent Judges, informed a source.
It is also learnt that the Joint Secretary in a separate order issued on the same day had also officially announced that a present Judge at the Chhattisgarh High Court, Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre will be the Chief Justice of the new Manipur High Court.
He was appointed the Chief Justice by the Indian President by the powers conferred by the Constitution of India Article 217 Clause (1), informed the source.
It may be mentioned that the Joint Secretary has also announced in its earlier order that the Meghalaya High Court and Tripura High Court which are opening on March 20 will have three and four Permanent Judges including the Chief Justices respectively.
The order was sent to the Chief Secretaries of the three states, informed the source.
It is also learnt that Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre will be sworn in on March 23 at 10:30am by the Union Law Minister Ashwini Kumar and Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court.
Sources have also revealed that according to the order of the Joint Secretary, Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh’s tenure as the Judge of the Gauhati High Court/Imphal Bench will cease from March 23 and will continue as a Judge of the newly established Manipur High Court from the same day.
The President of India after consultation with the Chief Justice of India had taken the decision regarding Justice N Kotiswar Singh under powers conferred to him by the Sub-section (I) of the Section 28B of the North-Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) Act, 1971, informed sources.
Advocate Khaidem Mani, an executive member of the High Court Bar Association, Manipur who has been demanding that whenever a separate High Court of Manipur is established, it should have atleast seven Judges with all Judges being from the Manipur Bar and Bench appreciated and welcomed the announcement of the Ministry of Law and Justice to appoint four Judges for the Manipur High Court.
The advocate however complained that the Manipur High Court will be starting with only two Judges on March 23 which would create problems in the state which has a lot of pending court cases.