Justice Hima Kohli: A judge who guided Telangana government to sound decisions

HYDERABAD: Though she has served as the Chief Justice of Telangana High Court for only a little over seven-and-a-half months, Justice Hima Kohli has already left her mark with judgments that set the course of the State government on the right path in several instances. The latest was an interim direction given to the State government to not fell trees at KBR Park in Hyderabad which, environmentalists argued, would sound a death knell to the environment.

Her role in helping the State government to take the right decisions to control Covid-19 is praiseworthy. She had, on several occasions, set the government back on the rails when it seemed it was going off on a tangent, particularly with enforcing Covid-19 guidelines, ensuring enough supplies of oxygen to hospitals, and more importantly, forcing private hospitals to return the exorbitant fees they had collected from Covid-19 patients.

Justice Kohli, who is to retire on attaining superannuation on September 1 — about 12 days from now — will continue to be the judge of the Supreme Court for three years from now, as the new retirement age for the Apex Court’s judges is 65 years, while it is 62 years for High Court judges.