Excelsior Correspondent
SHIMLA, Nov 27: Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir was today sworn-in as acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmilla Singh administered oath to Mir at a function here, which was attended by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal among others.
58-year-old Mir comes in place of A M Khanwilkar, who was shifted to Madhya Pradesh High Court last week.
Justice Mir, a native of Rajpora village in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, completed LLB in 1978 and joined Higher Judicial Services in 1992.
He was sworn in as additional judge of J&K High Court on January 31, 2005 and appointed as permanent judge on July 7, 2007.
Mir was also posted as Presiding Officer, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Srinagar and the designated court of TADA/ Special Judge, POTA for Kashmir division.
Mir told reporters here that speedy disposal of case and clearing the backlog of pending cases would be his priority. He said he has settled 36,000 cases in J&K.
Justice Mir was transferred from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to the Himachal Pradesh High Court on November 19.
According to the notification issued by Ministry of Law and Justice, the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in exercise of powers conferred by Clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India read with Article 222 (1A) of the Constitution (application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order 1954 and after consultation with the Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, N N Vohra and Chief Justice of India, Justice P Sathasivam, had transferred Justice Mir as a Judge of Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The President had directed Justice Mir to assume charge of his office in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on or before December 3, 2013.
EXCELSIOR had on November 15 exclusively reported that Justice Mir will shortly be appointed as Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.
With the transfer of Justice Mir, the strength of the J&K High Court has come down to 10 including Chief Justice against the sanctioned strength of 14 judges.
Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh was transferred to the High Court of Madhya Pradesh as its Chief Justice.
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