The proposal includes names of 44 advocates and 24 judicial officers
The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana, has recommended 68 names, including 44 advocates and 24 judicial officers, for appointment as judges in 12 High Courts of the country.
The 12 High Courts for which the recommendations have been made, include Allahabad, Rajasthan, Calcutta, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab & Haryana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Assam.
A three-member Collegium, comprising the CJI, Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, cleared the names in the meetings held on August 24 and September 1. The Collegium considered the names of 112 candidates – 82 from the Bar and 31 from the Judicial Service.
A lady judicial officer belonging to the Scheduled Tribe Marli Vankung got the nod from the Collegium for elevation to the Gauhati High Court. She will be the first ever High Court Judge from Mizoram.
Besides her, nine other women candidates have been recommended for judgeship in various High Courts.
While 16 names were recommended for appointment to the Allahabad High Court, 8 were chosen for Kerala, 10 for Calcutta High Court, 7 for Rajasthan, 5 each for Gauhati and Jharkhand, 4 each for Punjab & Haryana and Madras, 2 for Chhattisgarh, and 1 for Madhya Pradesh.
List of the judges in 12 High Courts of the country
Allahabad High Court
Advocates:
1. Chandra Kumar Rai,
2. Shishir Jain,
3. Krishan Pahal,
4. Sameer Jain,
5. Ashutosh Srivastava,
6. Subhash Vidyarthi,
7. Brij Raj Singh,
8. Shree Prakash Singh,
9. Vikas Budhwar,
10. Vikram D. Chauhan,
11. Rishad Murtaza,
12. Dhruv Mathur,
13. Vimlendu Tripathi.
Judicial Officers:
1. Om Prakash Tripathi,
2. Umesh Chandra Sharma, and
3. Syed Waiz Mian.
Calcutta High Court
Advocates:
1. Shri Krishna Rao, and
2. Ms. Koyeli Bhattacharyya
Judicial Officers:
1. Smt Shampa Dutt (Paul),
2. Shri Bibhas Ranjan De,
3. Shri Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury, and
4. Shri Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee.
The Collegium has also reiterated the following names for Calcutta High Court :
1. Shri Jaytosh Majumdar
2. Shri Amitesh Banerjee
3. Shri Raja Basu Chowdhury
4. Smt. Lapita Banerji
Chhattisgarh High Court
ADVOCATE:
1. Shri Sachin Singh Rajput, and
JUDICIAL OFFICER:
2. Shri Deepak Kumar Tiwari.
Gauhati High Court
ADVOCATES:
1. Shri Kakheto Sema,
2. Shri Devashis Baruah, and
3. Shri Arun Dev Choudhury.
JUDICIAL OFFICERS:
4. Smt. Malasri Nandi, and
5. Smt. Marli Vankung.
Jammu & Kashmir High Court:
JUDICIAL OFFICERS:
1. Shri Mohan Lal, and
2. Shri Mohd. Akram Chowdhary
Further, the collegium has reiterated following names for Jammu & Kashmir High Court
1.Shri Rahul Bharti and
2.Smt. Moksha Kazmi (Khajuria)
Jharkhand High Court
1. Shri Pradeep Kumar Srivastava
2. Shri Gautam Kumar Choudhary,
3. Shri Ambuj Nath,
4. Shri Navneet Kumar, and
5. Shri Sanjay Prasad.
Karnataka High Court
1. Shri Nagendra R. Naik
2. Shri Aditya Sondhi
Kerala High Court
ADVOCATES:
1. Smt. Sundaram Srimathy,
2. Shri D. Bharatha Chakravarthy,
3. Shri R. Vijayakumar, and
4. Shri Mohammed Shaffiq.
JUDICIAL OFFICERS
1. C Jayachandran
2. Sophy Thomas
3. PG Ajithkumar, and
4. CS Sudha
Madhya Pradesh High Court
ADVOCATES:
1.Shri Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav
Madras
ADVOCATES:
1. Smt. Sundaram Srimathy,
2. Shri D. Bharatha Chakravarthy,
3. Shri R. Vijayakumar, and
4. Shri Mohammed Shaffiq.
Punjab & Haryana High Court:
ADVOCATES:
1. Shri Vikas Suri,
2. Shri Vinod Sharma (Bhardwaj),
3. Shri Pankaj Jain, and
4. Shri Jasjit Singh Bedi.
Rajasthan High Court
ADVOCATES:
1. Shri Ganesh Ram Meena,
2. Shri Sudesh Bansal, and
3. Shri Anoop Dhand.
JUDICIAL OFFICERS
1. Shri Uma Shankar Vyas,
2. Shri Vinod Kumar Bharwani, and
3. Shri Madan Gopal Vyas.
The Collegium has reiterated the name of Farzad Ali (presently an Advocate).
As per the Department of Justice, as on September 1, 2021, there were 465 vacancies in the 25 High Courts — 281 of permanent judges and 184 of Additional Judges — against a sanctioned strength of 1,098. Of these, the Allahabad High Court accounted for 68 vacancies, Punjab & Haryana for 40 and Calcutta for 36.
Also Read: Supreme Court Collegium approves elevation of 3 advocates, 2 judicial officers as judges of Gauhati High Court
On August 17, the Collegium had cleared seven names for the Telangana High Court. On the same day, the five-member Collegium of Supreme Court had recommended 9 names for elevation to the Bench of Supreme Court. The names were cleared with significant pace by the Centre, leading to a historic swearing-in ceremony on August 31, when the new judges were administered oath of office as apex court judges. This has taken the total bench strength of Supreme Court to 33, leaving it with only one vacancy that arose after the August 17 meeting of the Collegium.
According to observers, the recommendations in huge numbers and in quick succession are indicative of the determination of the leadership of Supreme Court to address the issue of vacancies in higher judiciary with utmost priority.