Supreme Court Collegium proposes elevation of 13 advocates as judges of Allahabad High Court

The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and also comprising Justices Uday Umesh Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar, Dr D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao has approved the proposal for elevation of 13 advocates as judges of the Allahabad High Court.

In its meeting held on August 24, the SC Collegium recommended names of 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, for appointment as judges of Allahabad High Court.

The SC Collegium, after reconsideration, resolved to reiterate its earlier recommendations for elevation of three judicial officers as judges of Allahabad High Court. these include Om Prakash Tripathi, Umesh Chandra Sharma and Syed Waiz Main.

The Allahabad High Court, with its bench in Lucknow, has the strength of 160 Judges (120 permanent and 40 additional). As per the website of the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, the High Court currently has a strength of 92 judges, including 28 from its Bench in Lucknow (64 in Allahabad and 28 in Lucknow). After this recommendation gets clearance from the Centre, the strength will rise up to 108, with 52 vacancies left. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s Collegium also recommended 68 names in one go for elevation as Judges of various state High Courts to the Centre. This could be seen as a record number of recommendations by the Supreme Court’s Collegium in the recent past to the Centre for appointment of judges in various High Courts.

Also Read: Chief Justice NV Ramana credits SC Collegium for filling up vacancies in courts, calls it team effort

In the meetings held recently, on August 24 and September 1, the Supreme Court’s Collegium considered the names of 112 candidates – 82 from the Bar and 31 from the Judicial Service. Among those 68 cleared for 12 High Courts, 44 are from the Bar and 24 are from the Judicial Service.

The 12 High Courts, for which the names were recommended are, Allahabad, Rajasthan, Calcutta, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Assam.

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