Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma was appointed Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan in September last year. He has been holding the post for over 10 months now.

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rajasthan.nalsa.gov.in

Three letters from Supreme Court Judge Justice Sandeep Mehta to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant in August questioned why his “fervent appeals” to transfer Rajasthan High Court Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma had been “ignored” despite “clear evidence” of favoritism.In his first letter on August 2, Justice Mehta wrote to the CJI about the “grim and disturbing scenario” in his parent High Court in Rajasthan.Justice Mehta, in this letter, said the Acting Chief Justice, who is due to retire on September 26, has exhibited a total lack of leadership qualities and exhibited conduct unbecoming of a leader of the institution on more than one occasion.The Supreme Court judge reminded the CJI that he had been making repeated requests for appointment of a regular Chief Justice to the High Court since the beginning of the year 2026.“However, to date, the request to have a Chief Justice from another State in my parent High Court has met with no positive response,” Justice Mehta wrote.He said there was maladministration and malpractice on both the judicial and administrative sides of the High Court.The Supreme Court judge wrote that cases were suddenly withdrawn and shifted to the Bench of the Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) without any justifiable cause. Justice Mehta said he was initially asked by the CJI to provide a list of these cases in writing but was immediately thereafter assured that there was no need to place anything in writing, and suitable action would be taken.The next letter, dated August 10, states that the CJI had asked Justice Sharma to respond to the shifting of cases, but no specific information was available about the reply or the facts of these cases.Justice Mehta said the ACJ had called and humiliated judicial officers in Rajasthan to satisfy a “personal vendetta”. A full court meeting was held to designate a “large number of favoured advocates as seniors”, that too, on a working day. Justice Mehta said a “fanciful plan” was made for a multi-storied tower with almost 100 rooms to function as a guest house for the High Court. The apex court judge called it a “sheer waste of public money”.Justice Mehta said anguished judges of the High Court have said they were “frequently threatened” with retributive action, including transfer, by the ACJ, who claimed “closeness” with the CJI.Justice Mehta said the CJI’s Bench had recently observed the growing trend of judges passing orders for extraneous considerations in the autumn days of their careers. He termed this as attempts to “hit sixes” before retirement.“It is indeed ironical that on one hand, the Chief Justice of India is flagging corrupt practices by judges in the eve [evening] of their careers, and here we have an ACJ indulging in these very activities with impunity,” one of the letters said.In his last letter on August 17, Justice Mehta used terms like “rampant nepotism and favouritism” against the ACJ.He said it was “beyond comprehension” why “such a long rope” was given to a judge whose request for repatriation to the Rajasthan High Court was not accepted by the Supreme Court Collegium in March 2023.Justice Sharma, who had served in Patna and then the Punjab and Haryana High Courts, was finally recommended for repatriation to the Rajasthan High Court in a Supreme Court Collegium meeting on May 26, 2025. Justice Sharma was appointed Acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan in September last year. He has been holding the post for over 10 months now.“I have been repeatedly requesting you to take a decision to appoint a Chief Justice from another State to the Rajasthan High Court so that this unfortunate situation can be prevented. Continued ignorance of the request, in my opinion, is wholly against the interest of the institution,” Justice Mehta wrote to the CJI.At one point, the apex court judge mulled putting his letter in the public domain so that it may trigger an “inflow of information.”Justice Mehta has not heard from the CJI on the issue after August 17. A Supreme Court official said the CJI is currently on an official tour abroad.Published on August 26, 2026