The Delhi High Court got three new judges after Justices Dinesh Mehta, Avneesh Jhingan and CS Sudha were sworn in on Tuesday, taking the total strength of the judges to 44. The sanctioned strength of judges in Delhi HC is 60. Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya administered the oath of office to the new judges.
The transfer of the three justices was notified by the Central Government on October 14 after the Supreme Court Collegium recommendations. While Justices Mehta and Jhingan have been transferred to Delhi from the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Sudha was a judge of the Kerala High Court. Notably, six judges, Justices V Kameswar Rao, Nitin Wasudeo Sambre, Vivek Chaudhary, Om Prakash Shukla, Anil Kshetarpal and Arun Kumar Monga had recently taken oath as the judges of the Delhi High Court after their transfer from other High Courts.
This had led to concerns from the Bar that the move was diminishing opportunities for local advocates to be elevated to the Bench.
Justice Dinesh Mehta, transferred from Rajasthan HC, enrolled as an advocate in 1992. Being a third-generation lawyer, Mehta is considered as an expert in Taxation, Arbitration, Banking Laws, Company Laws, Electricity Laws, Environment Laws, Insurance Laws, Agrarian Laws, and Municipal Laws.
The Rajasthan High Court has recently bid farewell to Justice Mehta, where they lauded his “legal acumen and his boldness with clarity in his voice”. They also called him a “model of judicial transparency” for his colleagues who used to “maintain an aura of decorum and courtesy,” pointing out that he has decided “around 72,819 cases”.
Justice Avneesh Jhingan, started as an advocate in the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council in 1992.
He was elected as Chief Patron of the Punjab Tax Bar Association and took oath as an Additional Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2017, following which he became a permanent judge. He then became a Rajasthan High Court judge in 2023.
At the event marking his farewell in the Rajasthan High Court, he was credited as someone who was defined by “precision, discipline and an unwavering devotion to judicial duty” and has concluded around 4,127 judgments in toto.
Justice CS Sudha, started her career as a lawyer in 1989 in Thiruvananthapuram. She entered judicial service after securing the first rank in the Kerala Judicial Service examination.
In the years that followed, she served in multiple capacities, including Munsiff-Magistrate and Assistant Sessions Judge. Justice Sudha was later appointed as Registrar of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Delhi in 2017 after her deputation as Registrar, Competition Appellate Tribunal in 2013.
She was sworn in as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Kerala in 2021, where she was later appointed as a Permanent Judge in 2023.