Correct Answer : Uttarakhand
Justice Ritu Bahri was administered oath as the new chief justice of the Uttarakhand high court on Sunday (4th Feb 2024) by Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh at a ceremony held here at Raj Bhawan.
Senior government functionaries, including chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, attended the swearing-in ceremony.
The Centre on February 2 notified the appointment of justice Ritu Bahri as the new chief justice of Uttarakhand high court. Justice Bahri replaces former chief justice Vipin Sanghi, who retired on October 26 last year. After his retirement, senior high court judge Manoj Kumar Tiwari was made the acting chief justice.
According to the notification issued by the Union ministry of law and justice, department of justice on February 2, “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Kumari Justice Ritu Bahri, Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to be Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office.”
In October last year, justice Bahri was appointed as acting chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court. On November 2, 2023, the Supreme Court collegium recommended her appointment as the chief justice of Uttarakhand high court.
Born on October 11, 1962, in Punjab’s Jalandhar, justice Bahri belongs to a family of illustrious lawyers. Her great-grandfather late Karam Chand Bahri was a well-known lawyer. Her grandfather late Som Dutt Bahri also practised law and was a legislator from Punjab from 1952 to 1957. Her father justice Amrit Lal Bahri retired as judge of Punjab and Haryana high court in 1994.
Ritu did her schooling at Carmel Convent School, Chandigarh, and graduated in Economics (Hons.) from Government College for Women, Chandigarh, in 1982.
After that, she pursued law at Punjab University in 1985. She was enrolled as an advocate in 1986 with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana and started her practice at the Punjab and Haryana high court.
In March 1992, she was appointed as assistant advocate general, Haryana, and in 1999, as the deputy advocate general and senior advocate general in December 2009. She was elevated as judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court in August 2010.
In 2000, when Uttarakhand was carved out from Uttar Pradesh, the high court of Uttarakhand was also established at the same time in Nainital, with justice Ashok A Desai as its founder chief justice..
Source : Hindustan Times
