Justice Akil Kureshi elevated as Tripura HC chief justice

Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi was on Friday elevated as the chief justice of the Tripura High Court, the Law Ministry said.

Also, Justice Mohammad Rafiq, a judge of the Rajasthan High Court, was elevated as the chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court, the ministry said in a separate notification.

The Supreme Court collegium had earlier recommended Justice Kureshi's name to head the Madhya Pradesh High Court. But following reservations expressed by the government, it 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, the senior-most judge of the state's high court.

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's plea had 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 had contended that the reluctance of the Centre to appoint Justice Kureshi as the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court was against the procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) and amounted to 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.

GHCAA president Yatin Oza had reportedly said Justice Kureshi was being singled out for an order passed by him in 2010, remanding 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.