After months of delay, govt clears Justice Akil Kureshi’s name as Tripura HC chief justice

Ending months of standoff, the name of Justice Akil Kureshi of the Bombay High Court is learnt to have been cleared for elevation as the chief justice of the Tripura High Court, sources in the government said on Thursday.

The file has been cleared by the government and is now pending before the president who would sign the warrant of appointment, the sources said.

The Supreme Court collegium had recommended him to head the Madhya Pradesh High Court. But following reservations by the government, the collegium modified its recommendation and proposed his name as head of the Tripura HC.

The Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) had moved the top court a few months ago, alleging that the Centre was delaying the appointment of Justice Kureshi.

GHCAA president Yatin Oza had reportedly said Justice Kureshi was being singled out for an order passed by him in 2010, remanding the current Union Home Minister Amit Shah in police custody in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Shah was discharged in the case by a CBI court in 2014.

Appointment of Justice Kureshi as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court was recommended by the Collegium on May 10 this year.

The GHCAA plea has claimed that the Centre did not clear the file for appointment of Justice Kureshi and on June 7, came out with a notification appointing Justice Ravi Shanker Jha as acting chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Association has contended that the reluctance of the Centre to appoint Justice Kureshi as the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court is against the procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) and amounts to a violation of Articles 14 and 217 of the Constitution.

The modified recommendation to send Justice Kureshi to the Tripura High Court was later uploaded on the apex court's website and it said that the decision was taken in the collegium's meeting on September 5.