SC Collegium reiterates names for judges to Delhi, Calcutta, Kerala and Chhattisgarh HCs

THE Supreme Court Collegium in a meeting held on Thursday reiterated its recommendations for appointing as judges four advocates to the Delhi High Court, three judicial officers to the Calcutta High Court, three advocates to the Kerala High Court, and one advocate to the Chhattisgarh High Court.

The Collegium, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana and Justices U.U. Lalit and A.M. Khanwilker, has reiterated its previous approvals for elevating advocates Tara Vitasta Ganju, Anish Dayal, Amit Sharm, and Mini Pushkarna, as judges at the Delhi High Court. The Collegium had first recommended their names on August 17 last year, along with advocates Jasmeet Singh and Amit Bansal. The Centre had appointed Singh and Bansal as Judges in February this year while it returned the remaining four names to the Collegium for reconsideration.

For the Calcutta High Court, the Collegium has reiterated the names of three judicial officers, Ananya Bandyopadhyay, Rai Chattopadhyay and Subhendu Samanta for elevation as Judges. The Collegium had approved their names in February this year along with judicial officers Kesang Doma Bhutia, Rabindranath Samanta, Sugato Majumdar, Bivas Pattanayak and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee, who were appointed as judges in August this year. The Centre had delinked the names of Bandyopadhyay, Chattopadhyay and Samanta from the rest, and requested the Collegium to reconsider its recommendations with respect to them.

Besides, the Collegium has reiterated the names of advocates Shoba Annamma Eapen, Sanjeetha Kalloor Arakkal and Aravinda Kumar Babu Thavarakkattil for their elevation to the Kerala High Court. The Collegium had recommended their names on September 1 this year along with advocate Basant Balaji, whose appointment the union government notified last month.

In addition, the Collegium reiterated the name of advocate Sachin Singh Rajput for his elevation to the Chhattisgarh High Court. His name was first recommended by the Collegium on September 1 along with judicial officer Deepak Kumar Tiwari, whose appointment was notified by the union government last month.

As per the Supreme Court's 1993 judgment in the Second Judges' case, the government is bound to accept the recommendation of the collegium if it reiterates it after duly reconsidering it in accordance with the Memorandum of Procedure for appointing High Court Judges.