Justice Mustaque, who is the senior most judge of the Kerala High Court at present, will perform the duties of the Chief Justice upon the retirement of current Chief Justice AJ Desai on July 4.

A notification in this regard was published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 223 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Muhamed Mustaque Ayumantakath, Judge of the Kerala High Court, to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice of that High Court with effect from 05.07.2024 consequent upon retirement of Shri Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai, Chief Justice, Kerala High Court on July 4, 2024," the notification said.

Born on June 1, 1967 in Kannur, Justice Mustaque obtained his LLB from the VB College of Law, Udupi, and his LLM in Labour law from MG University.

He enrolled as a lawyer in 1989 and practiced primarily before courts in Kannur.

While practicing he also obtained Master 2 in space and telecommunication law from Paris XI University, completed a private international law course at Hague Academy of International Law, did an advanced course on E- Commerce and Intellectual Property from WIPO, trained as a mediator, and contributed to several international publications.

He was also a faculty member for training on mediation with the Indian Institute of Arbitration and Mediation, a Panel Arbitrator of ICADR AND IIAM and a Member of the International Institute of Space Law and Indian Society of International Law.

He worked as Managing Editor of online news legal news letter L.I.N.K. Published from Luxembourg, Charter Member and Treasurer of India International ADR Association and Secretary of the Mediators' Council of India.

On January 23, 2014, he was sworn in as an additional judge of the Kerala High Court. He was made a permanent judge of the Court on March 10, 2016.