Justice Virender Singh, the senior most judge of Jammu & Kashmir High Court, is set to be new Chief Justice of Jharkhand. His name was cleared last week by the Supreme Court collegium. Justice Singh would be replacing Justice R Banumathi, present Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, who has been elevated to the Supreme Court. Justice Banumathi, had assumed this office on November 16, 2013.On July 22 last, the Union Government had cleared the names of senior advocate Uday Umesh lalit and three High Court Chief Justices, including Justice Banumathi as Judges of the Supreme Court.
Justice Singh had been transferred to J &K High Court from Punjab & Haryana High Court in 2007. He had also functioned as the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court from April 2, 2012 to June 8, 2012.
Prior to this, he had served as Deputy Advocate General, Haryana first from May 1995 to April 1996 and then from July 1996 to January 1999. He had been elevated as Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2002.
Born on July October 7, 1954, Singh did his law from J V Jain College, Saharanpur and entered legal profession in June, 1978. He practised mostly on criminal side besides dealing with cases under the Motor Vehicles Act and Hindu Marriage Act. Till the year 1988, he practised at Rohtak and subsequently shifted to Chandigarh.