NEW DELHI, Sept 17: In a bid to fill up the long-pending vacancies in various high courts and strengthen the judiciary, the Supreme Court collegium under the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is proceeding with staggering speed.
At a single sitting on Friday, the collegium finalized recommendations for eight new Chief Justices to High Courts, the transfer of five High Court Chief Justices and the shuffling of 28 High Court judges across the country.
It was reliably learnt that the eight High Court judges recommended for elevation as Chief Justices of High Courts include Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Rajesh Bindal as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court.
Among the five Chief Justices learnt to have been recommended for transfer is Justice A.A. Kureshi of the Tripura High Court as chief justice of Rajasthan High Court.
In the last one month or so, the collegium has fnalised recommendations for over 100 judicial appointments, several transfers and elevations of judges, advocates and Chief Justices. The Collegium began its work on a historic note with the successful recommendation of nine new judges to the Supreme Court that were quickly approved by the government including that of Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who is tipped to become India’s first woman CJI in 2027. This accomplishment was followed by the recommendation of 68 names to various High Courts in one go.
The back-to-back meetings and recommendations in the past one month indicate the resolve within the Collegium to get the better of the perennial problem of vacancies, especially in the High Courts. Besides the CJI, the Collegium has Justices U.U. Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao.
Besides Justice Bindal, the other judges recommended for elevation as Chief Justices of High Courts are Justice Prakash Srivastava for Calcutta, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra for the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi for Karnataka, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma for Telangana, Justice Ranjit V. More for Meghalaya, Justice Aravind Kumar for Gujarat and Justice R.V. Malimath for Madhya Pradesh.
This is probably the largest number of judges recommended by the Collegium for elevation as Chief Justices of High Courts.
Other than Justice Kureshi, the other Chief Justices of High Courts recommended for transfer include Andhra Pradesh Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami to Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh Chief Justice Mohd. Rafiq to Himachal Pradesh, Chief Justice Indirajit Mohanty of the Rajasthan High Court to Tripura and Meghalaya Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder to Sikkim.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice Ramana described judicial appointments as an “ongoing process”. He said the Collegium intended to “live up to the herculean task of filling up 41% of vacancies existing in all the High Courts.
(Manas Dasgupta)