The President on Friday appointed acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Gita Mittal as Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
Justice Mittal is the first woman chief justice of J&K High Court.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by the section 95 of Jammu and Kashmir, the President is pleased to appoint Kumari Justice Gita Mittal Judge of Delhi High Court, to be the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office,” reads a notification issued by Union Ministry of Law and Justice on Friday.
Earlier the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the name of Mittal for the appointment as the Chief Justice of J&K High Court.
Justice Mittal is the senior-most judge of Delhi High Court.
After the Chief Justice of the J&K High Court Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed demitted his office in March this year, the office of Chief Justice for the J&K High Court was lying vacant.
Born on 9 December, 1958, Justice Gita Mittal was appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court on 16 July, 2004. Prior to her appointment as Additional Judge, she had an illustrious legal practice in all the courts and other judicial forums since 1981.
Justice Mittal was confirmed as a permanent judge on 20 February, 2006.
Since August 2008, Justice Mittal has been a member of the Governing Council of the National Law University, Delhi. She is also a member of the Governing Council of the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi since 2013 and has been nominated to its Administrative Committee.
Justice Mittal has written extensively on ‘Access to Justice’; protection of human rights; impact of incarceration on women; corporate social responsibility; death penalty; impact of religion, culture, tradition on judging; corporate laws; procedure and intellectual property litigation and environmental laws and issues.
She has designed the Vulnerable Witness Courtroom Project in the Delhi Trial Courts, which led to the first such court room in India being inaugurated on 16 September 2012. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008 from the Vice President of India, awarded by the Lady Shriram College for Women.