Justice Siddharth Mridul has been appointed new Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court, the Law Ministry said in a notification on Monday.
“I convey best wishes to him,” Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a post on X.
In July this year, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the appointment of Justice Mridul. However, it was pending with the Centre for over three months. Last week, the Centre had informed that Justice Mridul’s appointment was cleared and would be notified shortly.
Since February, the Manipur High Court has been functioning without a permanent Chief Justice and Justice Muralidharan has been serving as its acting Chief Justice.
Despite a request from Justice Muralidharan to either shift him to the Madras High Court, his parent court, or allow him to continue in Manipur, the Collegium transferred him to the Calcutta High Court for “better administration of justice” on October 9.
A March 27 order passed by Justice Muralidharan, directing the Manipur government to “consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list expeditiously,” is considered one of the triggers for the ethnic violence in the State.
The order had drawn flak from the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Chandrachud remarking in open court that it should be stayed.
