News Analysis India

Tag: Supreme Court judges

  • Regional imbalance in appointment of Supreme Court judges

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  With the Collegium recommendation of nine persons for elevation as Supreme Court judges sent to the Centre for approval, the issue of equal representation has cropped up again. There are many high courts which have got no representation at all for several years.

    A look at the data from 1985 reveals that Delhi, Bombay and Allahabad high courts dominate the selection of judges to the Supreme Court. Presently, the top court has a working strength of 24 judges against the sanctioned strength of 34. Of them, four belong to Bombay High Court, three each to Delhi and Andhra Pradesh (undivided), two each to Karnataka, Allahabad, West Bengal and Rajasthan. There are one each from Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Assam.

    Those who have remained unrepresented in the apex court for a long time are six Northeast states, Odisha, J&K, Himachal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Sikkim and Goa. Even though these states had judges who could have been elevated, it never happened. In the present Collegium recommendation, there are names from six states — Maharashtra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, UP and Tamil Nadu.

    Bombay High Court has produced the most number of Supreme Court judges till date. It also leads when it comes to Chief Justices of India, with seven out of 43. Calcutta is comes next with six, followed by Allahabad with five. Karnataka High Court has had four judges who have adorned the post of Chief Justice of India.

    Though there are no specific rules for regional origin, Collegium resolutions and the government had tried to maintain regional representation. Regional representation is based on a Supreme Court judge’s parent high court, where they first became a high court judge. However, one can also become a Supreme Court judge directly while being a lawyer.

  • SC Collegium recommends nine names, including 3 woman judges, to Centre for appointment as judges

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana is understood to have ended the nearly-two-year-long logjam by recommending nine names for appointment as judges in the apex court, sources said.

    With the retirement of Justice R F 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.

    Significantly, no appointment has been made after the superannuation of the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi on March 19, 2019.

    Sources said that the five-member collegium, which also comprises Justices U U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, has sent three names of woman judges, including Justice B V Nagarathna from the Karnataka High Court who could become the first woman CJI.

    According to the people familiar with the development, besides Justice Nagarathna , two other women judges picked for the appointment are Justice Hima Kohli, the Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, and Justice Bela Trivedi, a Gujarat High Court judge.

    The collegium is also understood to have selected senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha for direct appointment from the Bar.

    The other names, as per sources, 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), C T Ravi Kumar (a judge in Kerala High Court) and M M Sundersh (also a judge in Kerala High Court).

    The recommendations, if accepted, will fill all current vacancies taking the working strength to 33.

    One additional vacancy would arise on Wednesday, when Justice Navin Sinha retires.