The Supreme Court of India has received two separate lists of judicial officers which has been sent by the Kerala High Court collegium as recommendation for elevation as High Court judges.
The Collegium of High Court collegium comprises of the three senior most judges which includes the Chief Justice.
The collegium that forwarded the two lists comprised of Chief Justice of Kerala S Manikumar, Justice SV Bhatti and Justice K Vinod Chandran.
Justice Vinod Chandran was recently transferred and appointed as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.
As per a media report the reason for two lists can be traced to difference in opinion between the members of the Collegium.
Chief Justice Manikumar and Justice Bhatti agreed on seven judicial officers and sent a list accordingly.
Chief Justice Manikumar and Justice Bhatti’s list had following names
- PJ Vincent
- MB Snehalatha
- C Krishnakumar
- G Girish
- Johnson John
- C Pratheep Kumar
Justice Chandran however sent a different list and also marked his dissent on one judicial officer in the other list recommended by the other two judges.
The Apex Court has received both the lists for consideration.
Justice Chandran’s list
- P Krishnakumar
- KV Jayakumar
- MB Snehalatha
- G Girish
- Johnson John
- C Pratheep Kumar
- P Saidalavi
The names judicial officers PJ Vincent and C Krishnakumar is not included in the list and instead the names of KV Jayakumar and P Saidalavi are added.
The Kerala High Court has 36 sitting judges including the Chief Justice as against a sanctioned strength of 42 judges.