Centre Appoints New Chief Justices to Eight High Courts, Including Rajasthan and Bombay
The appointments, made on Collegium recommendations, include Justice Sanjay K. Agarwal as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court amid the ongoing controversy over Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, and bring the number of High Courts headed by judges from the Allahabad High Court to five.
Published on: 6 September 2026, 12:50 pm
ON SATURDAY EVENING, the Union Government appointed Chief Justices to eight High Courts, namely the High Courts of Patna, Calcutta, Rajasthan, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
Delhi High Court judge Justice V. Kameswar Rao has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.
Bombay High Court’s Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
Allahabad High Court’s Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.
Acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra has been appointed as Chief Justice of that High Court. Justice Mishra originally comes from the Allahabad High Court.
These four sets of recommendations were made by the Supreme Court Collegium comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath and B.V. Nagarathna on August 6, 2026.
In addition, the government has also approved the fresh recommendation to appoint Chhattisgarh High Court Justice Sanjay K. Agarwal as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court.
The recommendation to transfer Justice Agarwal has come in the backdrop of protests against the Acting Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, after Supreme Court judge Justice Sandeep Mehta reportedly accused Justice Sharma, in a letter to the Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’), of manipulating the listing of cases and threatening judicial officers.
Gujarat High Court’s Justice Alpesh Yeshvant Kogje has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Rajasthan High Court judge Justice Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.
Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra, a judge of the High Court of Orissa, has been appointed as Chief Justice of the High Court of Chhattisgarh.
With the new set of appointments, there will be as many as five Chief Justices in different High Courts from the Allahabad High Court alone. High Courts of Delhi, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana have Chief Justices from the Allahabad High Court.
The President of India, under Article 217(1) of the Constitution of India, appoints the Chief Justices of the High Courts. The recommendation as to who should be appointed as Chief Justice of a High Court is made by the Supreme Court Collegium, which comprises the CJI and the next senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.