Meena Kumari sworn in as first chief justice of Meghalaya HC

Shillong: Justice T Meena Kumari was on Sunday sworn in as the first Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court by Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary.

The Governor administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kumari at a ceremony held in the Raj Bhavan. Meena was earlier a judge of the Patna High Court.

Talking to reporters after her swearing-in ceremony, Justice Meena said that her first priority would be to see that fast-track courts are being set up in the state. "The fast tract courts have to be established and I will take up this matter," she said.

Refusing to divulge more details on the priorities to be taken up, the newly sworn in chief justice, however, said, "I have to first settle down and understand the problems of the region besides the pending cases."

Later, the Chief Justice also administered oath of office to two new judges of the high court TMK Singh and SR Sen at the Shillong High Court.

The newly established Meghalaya High Court will be formally inaugurated on March 25 by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Altamas Kabir. Apart from Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura have also been given their own full-fledged high courts.

While, the strength of judges in the two high courts will be three each including the chief justice, Tripura High Court, however, will have four judges including the chief justice. Notably, with the approval of these three full-fledged high courts in the North East, the total number of high courts in the country will increase from 21 to 24.