Hyderabad: Telangana High Court Chief Justice Kumari Hima Kohli was formally elevated and appointed judge of the Supreme Court of India. On Thursday, President Ram Nath Kovind approved the recommendation made by Supreme Court collegium to elevate Justice Hima Kohli, and eight others, to the Supreme Court, and the Centre issued warrants.
Justice Kohli will be judge of the apex court till September 1, 2024, when she turns 65.
As judge of the Delhi High Court previously and Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, Justice Hima Kohli had left her mark in adjudicating cases. She was known for not keeping cases pending. She preferred to dispose of the cases after taking few adjournments.
A key point was that Justice Kohli preferred discipline among advocates. In a span of around eight as Chief Justices, she never allowed any advocate to take adjournments on petty reasons. Advocates needed to have a valid reason for asking for adjournment of hearings. There were several instances when advocates were penalised with costs when they did not file counters though they had been given reasonable time.
Justice Kohli never hesitated to examine the advocate`s genuineness. She slapped huge costs recently on an advocate who tried to bluff the court. The advocate had intimated the court through his junior that he would not be able to appear as he was unwell, but was found physically attending another court.
Chief Justice Kohli took a very serious view of public servants and authorities who ignored court orders. She wasn’t lenient to any officer facing a contempt case.
She initiated a new approach of directing public servants to do social service for a few days in order to set aside the sentence of the imprisonment given against them in contempt cases. In most cases, she never set aside costs imposed on the public servants.
She also directed the Registry of the High Court to place the record of contempt cases being faced by a public servant whenever he filed a contempt appeal.
