Collegium recommends 9 names for SC Judges

The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana has recommended nine names, which include three women high court judges, to the Centre for appointment as judges at the top court, the Supreme Court has said in a statement. Four of the judges to be elevated are chief justices of high courts. Thee names of three women High Court judges, including Justice BV Nagarathna of Karnataka HC, have been recommended for elevation as the apex court judges. The four chief justices of different high courts whose names have been recommended are -- Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka (Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court), Vikram Nath (Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court), Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari (Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court) and Justice Hima Kohli (Chief Justice of Telengana High Court).

It said in a statement that the Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on August 17, has recommended names of four chief justices of different high courts for elevation as top court judges. Besides them, the names of Justice BV Nagarathna from the Karnataka High Court, Justice CT Ravikumar of Kerala High Court, Justice MM Sundresh of Madras High Court and Justice Bela Trivedi from the Gujarat High Court judge have been recommended by the Collegium. Senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha, whose name if cleared, would become the sixth lawyer to be elevated to the apex court bench directly from the Bar.

With the retirement of Justice RF Nariman on August 12, the strength of judges in the top court had come down to 25 as against the sanctioned strength of 34, including the CJI. Justice Navin Sinha of the apex court is also retiring today which will further bring down the number to 24. Significantly, no appointment has been made after the superannuation of the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi on March 19, 2019. The five-member Collegium also comprises Justices UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.The recommendations, if accepted, will fill all current vacancies taking the working strength.