Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra Swearing-In: Why CM Mann Boycotted It
Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra was sworn in as Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana HC on Monday but CM Bhagwant Mann skipped it after Punjab’s Cabinet demanded the appointment be held back. Here’s the full timeline.
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 7
Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday, capping a 48-hour standoff in which the Punjab Cabinet had formally demanded the appointment be put on hold — and was overruled by events on the ground.
Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria administered the oath at Lok Bhawan, Chandigarh. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini attended, as is customary for a sitting Chief Minister at a High Court’s swearing-in. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann did not.
The absence was not incidental. A day earlier, the Punjab Cabinet, chaired by Mann, had passed a resolution objecting to the appointment on the ground that it bypassed the Centre’s own procedure for consulting the state before naming a Chief Justice.
Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra swearing-in: What Punjab says went wrong
The Cabinet’s objection rests on Para 6 of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) governing High Court Chief Justice appointments, which requires the Union Law Ministry to obtain the concerned state government’s views before the Prime Minister advises the President on the appointment.
According to the Punjab government’s account, the timeline ran as follows: the Supreme Court Collegium recommended Justice Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra’s elevation on August 6. On August 12, Punjab received a letter from Union Minister of State for Law Arjun Ram Meghwal seeking the state’s consent under Para 6 — a communication the Cabinet says was mirrored by a separate letter from the Governor to Mann the same day. No response deadline was fixed. Then, on September 5, the Law Ministry notified Justice Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra’s appointment by presidential order — without, the Cabinet says, waiting for Punjab’s views to come back.
Taking to X after Sunday’s emergency Cabinet meeting, Mann called it “a direct violation of the prescribed procedures (Memorandum of Procedure) and constitutional norms,” and folded it into a broader charge sheet against the Centre — withheld RDF funds of over ₹9,000 crore, an undisbursed ₹1,600 crore flood relief package, changes to BBMB’s Member (Power) convention, and the push to centralise Panjab University. “Inquilab Zindabad,” he signed off, demanding the appointment be held back until Punjab’s views were “duly considered.”
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, briefing reporters in Jalandhar the same day, sharpened the comparison: when the Collegium recommended Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia — then the senior-most judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court — for the Madhya Pradesh Chief Justice’s post in July 2024, the notification sat for over two months, reportedly for want of the Madhya Pradesh government’s response, before his posting was switched to Himachal Pradesh instead. “Why was Justice Sandhawalia’s appointment delayed for two months, but Justice Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra’s was processed without consulting the Punjab government?” Cheema asked, calling it evidence of an “anti-Punjab mindset.”
The procedural gap Punjab’s own statement concedes
The Cabinet’s note carries an acknowledgment that complicates its case: “no clear time limit is prescribed for the State and the Governor to send its recommendation in the case of appointment of the Chief Justice.” That absence of a deadline is precisely what gives the Centre room to argue it was under no obligation to wait indefinitely — three and a half weeks after the August 12 letter — before notifying an appointment that, procedurally, only formalised what had already been the case since June 1, when Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra took over as Acting Chief Justice following Justice Sheel Nagu’s elevation to the Supreme Court.
Monday’s ceremony
The oath itself went ahead without incident. Justice Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, who has been functioning as Acting Chief Justice since June 1, was administered the oath by Governor Kataria at Lok Bhawan. The ceremony was attended by sitting and retired High Court judges, their families, and senior bureaucrats — and by Haryana’s Chief Minister, but not Punjab’s.
Justice Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, born November 16, 1968, was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court from Allahabad, where he served as a judge from 2014 and was part of the bench that delivered the October 2023 verdict in the Nithari killings case. Full profile: his career, his three months as Acting Chief Justice, and the retirement math →
What Former Law Minister Says
Former Union law minister Ashwani Kumar said the controversy over the appointment of the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court negatively impacts inter-institutional and Centre-State relations, and that it should have been avoided.
In a statement, he said that while the views of state governments are sought on the proposed appointment of High Court judges, they are not binding on the Centre or the President of India.
Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain refuted the Punjab government’s allegations. On its claims that its views were not taken for the CJ’s appointment, he said that the AAP government had sufficient time to send its views. He added that the appointment was made by President Droupadi Murmu, who is the highest constitutional authority in the country.
The controversy raised by the Punjab government over the appointment is most unfortunate and totally uncalled for, he said.
The legal status
Punjab’s Cabinet resolution has no binding force on the Law Ministry or the Governor — it is a political statement of objection, not a legal stay. Whether Mann’s government pursues this further, through a formal representation or otherwise, or lets it rest as a one-off protest by boycott, is the open question the ceremony itself leaves behind.
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