Friday, 28 April 2023 | PNS | NAINITAL
Three newly appointed judges took oath of office as justices in the Uttarakhand High Court on Friday. With this, the total number of judges in the HC has increased to eight. Uttarakhand HC chief justice Vipin Sanghi administered the oath of office to the newly appointed judges who assumed charge on the same day.
Following the approval of President Droupadi Murmu, Union government special secretary Rajinder Kashyap had issued a letter on April 27 regarding the names of Rakesh Thapliyal, Pankaj Purohit and Vivek Bharti Sharma being approved for the posts of justices in the Uttarakhand HC. The chief justice administered the oath of office to the three in the presence of justices Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Sharad Sharma, Ravindra Maithani and Alok Kumar Verma. It should be mentioned here that a total of 11 posts of justices are approved or the HC out of which five were in office. With the three new judges taking oath on Friday, the number of justices in the HC has increased to eight.
Justice Thapliyal was the Centre’s assistant solicitor general in the Uttarakhand HC. He hails from Pauri district and his father was an LT grade teacher while his mother was a homemaker.After initial education in Uttarakhand and a law degree from Allahabad University, he began practicing law in 1990. Previously the Uttarakhand HC registrar general, justice Vivek Bharti Sharma studied in Delhi University and began his law practice in Delhi HC in 1990. He was also appointed the Government of India’s standing counsel in the Delhi HC. After being selected in the higher judicial service, he was posted as the additional district judge in Haridwar, Haldwani and Nainital before being made the principal district judge in Pithoragarh and Pauri. He was made the Uttarakhand HC registrar general in April 2022. Justice Pankaj Purohit hails from Chamoli district and his father was also an advocate. He was registered with the Allahabad bar council in 1992. He had been practicing in the Allahabad HC since 1997 and then in Uttarakhand HC after creation of Uttarakhand State.
