ON SATURDAY, the Union Government notified the appointment of seven judicial officers as judges of the Delhi High Court while holding back the appointment of judicial officer Gurvinder Pal Singh, the senior-most among the eight officers recommended for elevation.
The reason for not clearing Singh’s appointment is not immediately available, nor is it known whether the government has sat on his name or returned it to the Supreme Court Collegium.
On September 10 this year, the Supreme Court Collegium comprising Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’) Surya Kant and Justices Vikram Nath and B.V. Nagarathna recommended the names of eight judicial officers namely Gurvinder Pal Singh, Nivedita Anil Sharma, Nisha Sahay Saxena, Sanjay Sharma-I, Bharat Parashar, Dr. Aditi Choudhary, Dinesh Bhatt and Arun Bhardwaj, for elevation as judges of the Delhi High Court.
The Delhi High Court has a sanctioned strength of 45 permanent judges and 15 additional judges, and thus a total strength of 60. At present it is functioning with 43 judges. With the seven new appointments, the working strength will rise to 50, still leaving 10 vacancies.
The government has also cleared the appointment of judicial officer Yash Paul Bourney as a judge of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. His name was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on September 10.
The total sanctioned strength of the J&K and Ladakh High Court is 19 permanent judges and 6 additional judges, and thus 25 in all. At present it is functioning with only 13 judges, including the Chief Justice. With Bourney’s appointment, the strength will rise to 14 against the sanctioned strength of 25, leaving 11 vacancies.
The government has also cleared the appointment of three judicial officers namely Manoj Prasad, Akhil Kumar and Ram Sharma as judges of the Jharkhand High Court. That court has a sanctioned strength of 25 judges, comprising 20 permanent judges and 5 additional judges. At present it is functioning with only 13 judges, including the Chief Justice. With the three new appointments, the working strength will rise to 16, still leaving 9 vacancies.
The Karnataka High Court has also received three judges after the Union Government approved the Collegium’s recommendation to appoint judicial officers Usharani, K.S. Bharath Kumar and Nerale Veerabhadraiah Bhavani as judges of that High Court.
The Karnataka High Court has a sanctioned strength of 62 judges, comprising 47 permanent judges and 15 additional judges. It is currently functioning with 54 judges. With the three new appointments, the working strength will rise to 57, leaving 5 vacancies.