Justice Abhilasha Kumari was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of Manipur High Court by Governor Dr Najma Heptulla on Friday. She is the first woman chief justice of Manipur.
The oath taking ceremony was held at banquet hall of the Raj Bhavan in Imphal in presence of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, assembly Speaker Y Khemchand, Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar, opposition leader O Ibobi Singh, newly elected Deputy Speaker K Robindro, MLAs P Saratchandra, T Robindro, acting chief justice N Kotishwar, state chief secretary RR Rashmi, DGP Manipur LK Khaute and others legal luminaries and other government officials.
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Justice Kumari will remain in the office for 13 days, as she is retiring on February 22. Justice Kumari is a native of Himachal Pradesh. She is the daughter of former HP chief minister Virbhadra Singh, and married into the erstwhile royal family of Bhavnagar.
She joined the Bar in 1984 and practice in the HP high court. She had served as Additional Central Government Standing Counsel from 1995 to 2002 and was also Legal Adviser-cum-Standing Counsel for Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Himachal Pradesh University, HP Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation and HP State Electricity Board.
Justice Kumari was part of the division bench, along with Justice Jayant Patel who resigned last year after his transfer to the Allahabad high court from the Karnataka HC thereby being denied the opportunity to become the Chief Justice, which heard petitions seeking a CBI probe in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The bench constituted a special investigation team (SIT) and monitored the probe before directing the CBI to take up investigation in the controversial case.
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The Centre on Tuesday notified the appointment of Chief Justices of five High Courts — Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Karnataka and Kerala.