By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Altamas Kabir, will inaugurate the full-fledged Shillong High Court on March 25.
Secretary of the Law Department, LM Sangma, on Thursday informed that Union Law Minister Ashwin Kumar is likely to come to Shillong to inaugurate the High Court.
Justice T Meena Kumari, a Judge of the Patna High Court, will take oath on March 23 as the first Chief Justice (CJ) of the Shillong High Court and will be sworn-in by Governor RS Mooshahary.
Sources informed that on the same day, two judges – TMK Singh and SR Sen – would be sworn-in as the judges by her.
At present, there is only a Bench of the Gauhati High Court in Shillong.
Currently, the six northeastern states of Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have benches of the Gauhati High Court, Assam.
The obligatory amendment to the North-Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) Act, 1971 – the North-Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) and other related laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012 – was passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in May 2012, paving the way for the creation of separate high courts in the three states.
The full fledged High Court for Meghalaya will accelerate the process of full bifurcation of the Judiciary from the Executive besides opening up many employment opportunities as many judicial officers and other related staff will be appointed besides speedy disposal of several pending cases by the new High Court.