THE Supreme Court Collegium has, in one go, recommended a total of 68 names for elevation as judges of various high courts. This is the first time that so many names have been recommended altogether.
Among those 68 cleared for 12 high courts, 44 are from the Bar and 24 from the judicial service.
In all, there are 10 women among these 68 recommendees.
In a meeting held on August 24, the Collegium, comprising CJI NV Ramana and Justices UU Lalit and AM Khanwilkar recommended the names of 13 advocates for the judgeship at the Allahabad High Court. They are- Chandra Kumar Rai, Shishir Jain, Krishan Pahal, Sameer Jain, Ashutosh Srivastava, Subhash Vidyarthi, Brij Raj Singh, Shree Prakash Singh, Vikas Budhwar, Vikram D. Chauhan, Rishad Murtaza, Dhruv Mathur, and Vimlendu Tripathi.
Besides, the Collegium has also reiterated the names of judicial officers Om Prakash Tripathi, Umesh Chandra Sharma, Syed Waiz Mian for their appointment as judges of the Allahabad High Court.
A meeting of the Collegium on September 1 cleared the names of three advocates for their elevation as judges of the Rajasthan High Court. They are Ganesh Ram Meena, Sudesh Bansal, and Shri Anoop Dhand. In addition, the names of judicial officers Uma Shankar Vyas, Vinod Kumar Bharwani, and Madan Gopal Vyas have also been recommended for high court judgeship in Rajasthan.
The Collegium has also reiterated the name of advocate Farzand Ali for the appointment as a Rajasthan High Court judge.
For the Calcutta High Court, the Collegium has recommended names of four judicial officers and two advocates for their appointment as the judges of the high court. The judicial officers are Shampa Dutt (Paul), Bibhas Ranjan De, Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury, and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee. Advocates are Krishna Rao and Koyeli Bhattacharyya.
The Collegium has reiterated the names of advocates Jaytosh Majumdar, Amitesh Banerjee, Raja Basu Chowdhury and Lapita Banerji for the appointment as judges of the Calcutta High Court. The first recommendation was made in 2019.
A total of five judicial officers have been recommended for appointment to the Jharkhand High Court. They are Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Gautam Kumar Choudhary, Ambuj Nath, Navneet Kumar, and Sanjay Prasad.
For the Kerala High Court, the Collegium has recommended names of four judicial officers and four advocates. The judicial officers are C. Jayachandran, Sophy Thomas, G. Ajithkumar, and C.S. Sudha, while the advocates are Shoba Annamma Eapen, Sanjeetha Kalloor Arakkal, Basant Balaji, and Aravinda Kumar Babu Thavarakkattil.
For the Madras High Court, the Collegium has recommended names of advocates Sundaram Srimathy, D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, R. Vijayakumar and Mohammed Shaffiq for judgeship.
The Collegium has also approved the name of two judicial officers- Mohan Lal, and Mohd. Akram Chowdhary for their appointments as judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Besides, the Collegium has also reiterated the names of advocates Rahul Bharti and Moksha Kazmi (Khajuria) for their appointment as judges of the J&K High Court.
For the Chhatisgarh High Court, the Collegium has recommended one name each under the advocate and judicial officer category. They are Sachin Singh Rajput and Deepak Kumar Tiwari respectively.
A total of three advocates and two judicial officers have been recommended for the judgeship at the Gauhati High Court. They are- Kakheto Sema, Devashis Baruah, and Arun Dev Choudhury, Malasri Nandi, and Marli Vankung respectively.
For the Punjab and Harayana High Court, the Collegium has approved names of advocates Vikas Suri, Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj), Pankaj Jain, and Jasjit Singh Bedi for judgeship.
The Advocate General of Madya Pradesh High Court Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav has also been recommended for a judgeship at the same high court
Collegium has also reiterated the names of advocates Nagendra R. Naik and Aditya Sondhi for the appointment as judges of the Karnataka High Court.
