SHILLONG/ KOLKATA: Allahabad High Court judge Justice Biswanath Somadder, who has been elevated as the Chief Justice of High Court of Meghalaya, will be sworn in on Monday by the Governor at Raj Bhavan.
An official said that the new chief justice travelled by road and arrived here on Sunday night from Kolkata.
Sources said that amid the national lockdown and curfew in Shillong, there was no urgency for the new chief justice to rush to Shillong as the cases are being handled by the two judges in the High Court.
In the past too, the cases were heard by two judges when there was delay in the appointment of a third judge.
According to sources, the sudden appointment of a new chief justice when cases are heard only online has raised many an eyebrow since the present chief justice, Mohammad Rafiq, served the state only for five months.
It was only on November 13 last year that Justice Rafiq assumed office.
Moreover, the High Court had on Friday stopped physically hearing cases till May 15 due to COVID-19.
A PTI report from Kolkata earlier said that with the air and rail passenger services suspended due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown, two judges have embarked on a road journey, each of them covering around 2,000 km, as they gear up to take charge as chief justices of high courts in separate corners of the country.
The judges — who were elevated to the position of high court chief justices only recently — hit the road amid the nationwide shutdown to ensure trials and justice delivery system do not go off the track.
Justice Dipankar Datta, a judge at the Calcutta High Court, is taking turns with son to sit behind the steering wheel, as the family moves to Mumbai, where he will be taking over as the new Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, sources privy to the development said.
Justice Somadder, who had served at the Calcutta High Court before being transferred to Allahabad, set out on the journey from the north Indian city along with wife on Friday evening in an official car, the sources said.
He had a chauffeur by his side, who took charge of the wheels from time to time. The judge reached Kolkata on Saturday afternoon, and left for Shillong in the evening, after a few hours of rest at his Salt Lake residence here.
Justice Datta left for Mumbai from Kolkata on Saturday morning and plans to reach the country’s financial capital by Monday afternoon with overnight breaks on the way.
President Ram Nath Kovind had on Thursday elevated Justice Datta, senior judge of Calcutta High Court, as the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, and appointed Justice Somadder of Allahabad High Court as Chief Justice of High Court of Meghalaya.
Both Justice Datta and Justice Somadder were elevated as permanent judges of the Calcutta High Court on June 22, 2006. (With agency inputs from Kolkata)
