The Central Government on Thursday notified the appointments and transfer of Chief Justices for the High Courts of Bombay, Meghalaya & Orissa High Courts.
The President of India vides three different notifications each for appointment of respective Chief Justice has appointed and transferred:-
- Shri Justice Biswanath Somadder, Judge of the Allahabad High Court, to be the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court.
- Shri Justice Dipankar Datta, Judge of the Calcutta High Court, to be the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.
- Transfer Shri Justice Mohammad Rafiq, Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court and to direct him to assume charge of the office of the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
Brief History of the Judges:-
Justice Dipankar Dutta enrolled as an Advocate on November 16, 1989. He practised mainly in the High Court at Calcutta, as well as in the Supreme Court of India and other High Courts in Constitutional and Civil matters. He was the Junior Standing Counsel for the State of West Bengal from May 16, 2002 to January 16, 2004. He was Counsel for the Union of India since 1998. He appeared for a number of educational authorities and institutions including the University of Calcutta, W.B. School Service Commission and W.B. Board of Secondary Education. He was Guest Lecturer on Constitutional Law of India in the University College of Law, University of Calcutta, from 1996-97 to 1999-2000. He was elevated to the Bench of the High Court at Calcutta as a permanent Judge on June 22, 2006.
Justice Biswanath Somadder Passed B.A. and LL.B. Examination from the University of Calcutta. Did a Certificate Course on “Office Automation Tools” under the Computer Education Programme of Regional Computer Centre, Calcutta. He was enrolled as an Advocate on July 21, 1989. He practised in the High Court at Calcutta as well as the Supreme Court of India. He also appeared before CESTAT, Eastern Regional Bench. He also practised in Constitutional (Customs & Central Excise, FERA, Telecommunication, Education, Service & Income Tax), Arbitration, Company, Revenue, Civil and Criminal matters. He is specialised in Revenue, Arbitration and Constitutional Laws. Earlier he was Senior Counsel for the Central Government in the High Court at Calcutta. He was also the Honorary Joint Secretary of the Bar Library Club of Calcutta High Court, till just prior to his elevation. Justice Somadder was elevated to the Bench of the High Court at Calcutta as a permanent Judge on June 22, 2006.
Justice Mohammed Rafiq completed his B.Com in 1980, LL.B in 1984 and M.Com in 1986 from University of Rajasthan. He later on joined the Bar and practised as Advocate since July 1984. He worked as Assistant Government Advocate for the State of Rajasthan from July 15th 1986 to December 21st 1987 and Deputy Government Advocate from December 22nd 1987 to June 29th 1990. He also represented the Union of India as Standing Counsel from 1992 to 2001 before the High Court.He was appointed Additional Advocate General for the State of Rajasthan on January 7th 1999 and worked as such till his elevation to the Bench.
He practiced exclusively in Rajasthan High Court in almost all branches of law especially conducted constitutional matters, service matters, land acquisition cases, land revenue cases, preventive detention cases, customs & excise matters, railway claims cases, tax matters, company matters and criminal matters before the High Court. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court on 13th November, 2019.
The Judges will assume the charge of Chief Justice of respective High Courts from the date they assume the office. It is highly unlikely that the judges would be able to take charge as of now, since the nation is witnessing complete lockdown and the judges like the common man presently do not have any mode of transportation available with them to travel to their respective High Courts till the travel ban is lifted.
-India Legal Bureau