Chandigarh, January 19
Mr Justice V.K. Bali, Judge of the Rajasthan High Court, has been cleared for appointment as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.
According to informed sources, he is expected to take oath on January 22. Mr Justice Bali remained Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for over 15 years and was transferred out in February this year.
He hails from district Karnal in Haryana, from where he began his practice before shifting to the High Court.
It may be recalled that Mr Justice Bali and three other Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had been shifted out to other High Courts in February 2005 after the transfer of the then Chief Justice, Mr Justice B.K. Roy, to the Guwahati High Court. Mr Justice Bali was at that time the senior-most among local Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
With Mr Justice Bali’s elevation as Chief Justice, Judges of this High Court can finally be assured of further promotion.
He was among the 25 Judges who had proceeded on mass
leave on April 18 last year to protest the attitude of then Chief Justice Roy. It was the first-ever instance of Judges of a High Court going on mass leave in protest against their Chief Justice.
However, as it later came out, though a highly-questionable step, Judges had been forced to take the extreme step only due to Chief Justice Roy’s attitude and the failure of the Supreme Court to effectively intervene in the matter.
Hailing from a family of lawyers, Mr Justice Bali’s father still practices law at district courts, Karnal, while his son is a lawyer at the High Court.
Having entered the legal profession in 1967, Mr Justice Bali was designated senior advocate in 1987. He was elevated to the Bench of the High Court from the Haryana quota in March 1991, where he earned a name for himself for his quick disposal of cases and affable nature.
Incidentally, he will be the first Judge hailing from Haryana to be appointed Chief Justice of a High Court in over nine years, the last one being Chief Justice N.C. Jain (retd).
