M A I N   N E W S

Justice Sikri is Punjab and Haryana HC CJ
Saurabh Malik/ TNS

Chandigarh, July 27
Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri, is the new Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Information available from Delhi suggests his name has been cleared by the Supreme Court collegium and his warrants of appointment are expected to be received by the Punjab and Haryana High Court after being signed by the President. The entire process is expected to take just more than a fortnight.

Justice Sikri was chosen as “one of the 50 most influential persons in Intellectual Property in the world in a survey conducted by Managing Intellectual Property Association (MIPA) for 2007”.

Initially, the name of Justice Bimala Prasad Das of the Orissa High Court was considered for the position. But, available information suggests

Justice Das was not too willing to come due to his impending retirement upon attaining the age of superannuation.

Justice Sikri replaces Justice Ranjan Gogoi, elevated as a judge of the apex court in April this year. In the absence of a regular Chief Justice since Justice Gogoi’s elevation, Justice Jasbir Singh has been acting as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Justice Sikri comes at a time when the high court is reeling under scarcity of Judges and is coping up with the problem of pendency.

Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh has initiated stringent measures to bring down the pendency of cases - including expeditious disposal of PILs. Still, approx 2 lakh cases are pending adjudication. The high court, otherwise, has just 41 judges, against the sanctioned strength of 68 judges.

Justice Sikri had taken took over the charge of Delhi High Court’s Acting Chief Justice in October last year following the elevation of the previous Chief Justice, Dipak Misra, as a Supreme Court judge.

The senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court, Justice Sikri was born on March 7, 1954. After completing B.Com (honours) from Shriram College, Delhi University, he did his LL.B from Law Faculty in University of Delhi in 1977.

Awarded gold medal for attaining first position in LL.B in Delhi University, he was also presented with a special prize for getting highest marks in Constitutional Law.

He was appointed a judge of the Delhi High Court on July 7, 1999, and is known to have delivered landmark judgments.

He has also attended, chaired and presented papers during national and international seminars and workshops.