New Delhi: Days after Supreme Court judge Sandeep Mehta’s letters to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant demanding a full-time Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice became public, the top court collegium is learnt to have taken a decision to make the appointment.
The CJI-led collegium met Monday and finalised the name of Justice Sanjay K Agrawal as the new Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. Justice Agrawal is the senior-most judge in Chhattisgarh after the chief justice. He was appointed as an additional judge there in 2016 and was made permanent in 2018.
The top court collegium’s move came on a day when lawyers of the Jaipur Bar Association of the High Court gathered outside acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma’s court and chanted: “Gali gali mein shor hai, hamara mukhiya chor hai.”
They announced that they would boycott Justice Sharma’s court over Justice Mehta’s letters to the CJI, accusing the acting Chief Justice of unfairly changing the order in which cases were listed and misusing his administrative powers.
The lawyers in Jaipur refused to appear before Justice Sharma’s court. This was followed by the Jodhpur Bar Association’s announcement to boycott Justice Sharma’s bench till 6 September.
In an unprecedented move, the Rajasthan High Court issued a fresh cause list for work Tuesday which showed that Justice Sharma was not part of any bench constituted to hear cases.
Sources in the Rajasthan High Court confirmed to ThePrint that Justice Sharma, who is the master of the roster, had chosen to opt out of conducting any judicial work. The new roster provided for cases, earlier listed before his bench, to be dealt with by other benches.
The lawyers’ protest in Jaipur went viral online. Videos circulating from the site showed advocates raising slogans against Justice Sharma.
Justice Mehta’s stinging criticism in his three letters mentioned how Justice Sharma was repatriated to the Rajasthan HC despite an earlier collegium recommendation saying he cannot be moved back to his parent HC. Justice Sharma, appointed as Rajasthan HC judge, was transferred to Patna in 2022, then moved to Punjab & Haryana High Court in 2023 before being repatriated to Rajasthan in May 2025. He took over as the acting Chief Justice of Rajasthan HC in September 2025.
The collegium resolution that transferred him to Punjab & Haryana HC specifically mentioned that he cannot be repatriated to Rajasthan, even as he had requested for it. Owing to his health condition, the collegium had considered it fit to move him to Punjab & Haryana HC.
Justice Mehta’s letters took strong objection to Justice Sharma continuing as acting Chief Justice for 10 months. He had made repeated requests to appoint a full-time chief justice to lead Rajasthan.
ThePrint has also learnt that when Justice Sharma was moved out of Punjab & Haryana HC and sent to his parent HC in May 2025, the opinion of four judges who served in the Rajasthan HC was not sought. While two of them came from Rajasthan—Justices Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi—Justices Pankaj Mithal and Augustine Masih had served as chief justices there.
In a press statement, CJI Surya Kant had assured that the collegium was looking into the allegations. He added that Justice Sharma would be allowed to explain his side before any final decision was made.
“Any decision regarding the continuation, transfer or other administrative action concerning the acting Chief Justice would be taken by the competent institutional authority after due consideration of the material. The Supreme Court cannot allow individual complaints concerning judges to be determined through competing claims in the media,” the statement read.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: Chief Justices beyond Surya Kant: 1st woman CJI, another with tenure longer than Chandrachud’s