Telangana State Chief Justice shifted to Calcutta High Court

Hyderabad: Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan has been transferred as the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.

The Union law ministry on Saturday issued a notification after the President approved a decision of the Supreme Court Collegium. Justice Radhakrishnan has to assume office on or before April 6.

Justice Radhakrishnan’s transfer was in news since December 12 last year. The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi had taken consideration of the transfer of the CJ of the Hyderabad High Court for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

After bifurcation of the High Court, the five-judge Supreme Court collegium on January 10 passed a resolution and  forwarded it to the Union government to transfer Justice Radhakrishnan to the Calcutta High Court as its Chief Justice, in the wake of the retirement of Justice D.K. Gupta there on December 31 last year.

This recommendation was sent back by the Centre for reconsideration by the Collegium.

On February 19, the Collegium reiterated the proposal and said there was nothing new that had been brought to its notice regarding the transfer proposal.

With no response from the Centre, Justice Gogoi on March 11, for the second time in less than a month, wrote to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to act on the Collegium’s January 10 resolution.

Following this, the Union government forwarded the proposal to the President for his approval. The approval came through on Saturday.

Justice Radhakrishnan was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court on March 18, 2017. He was later transferred to the Hyderabad High Court as Chief Justice and took charge on July 7, 2018.

After the Telangana High Court came into existence on January 1, 2019, he was sworn in as its Chief Justice.