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SC collegium clears 8 names for Patna HC, including six from bar
Four more judges have been transferred to the Patna HC from different High Courts and they would be joining soon after completing the formalities
PATNA
After a long wait, the Patna High Court is set to get eight new judges. This will bring down the vacancies, as the court was left with just 17 judges against the sanctioned strength of 53 at the start of this month and one more vacancy was to arise at the end of September.
Of the eight new judges, six have been elevated from the bar after approval at the Supreme Court collegium meeting on September 23. They include Khatim Reza, Sandeep Kumar, Anshuman Pandey, Purnendu Singh, Satyavrat Verma and Rajesh Kumar Verma.
Two others who got elevated as judges of the HC are judicial officers Navneet Kumar Pandey, who is presently the registrar general of the HC, and Sunil Kumar Panwar, who is presently registrar (vigilance) at Patna HC.
“The warrants for their appointments will be issued by the President. As per the procedure, now the Centre will send the names after due process to the President. It may take a fortnight’s time,” said a court official.
Four more judges have been transferred to the Patna HC from different High Courts and they would be joining soon after completing the formalities. The judges transferred are from Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Punjab and Haryana High Court.
One judge, Justice A Amanullah has also been transferred out of Patna HC to Andhra Pradesh.
With 12 new judges, the strength of the 105-year-old institution will increase to 28, still just around 53% of the sanctioned strength. In August 2019, the working strength of Patna HC was 24, which fell further in the last two years to reach 17.
This year itself, the Patna HC collegium had sent four recommendations comprising 35 names to reduce the vacancies. Of the 11 names sent from the bar, six have been selected.
The last three recommendations comprising 20 names had been made since July 16, including one on August 2.
Former additional solicitor general SD Sanjay said it was a very good sign for the Patna HC that the Supreme Court collegium has recommended six names from the bar. “Besides, two judges will be from the judiciary side and four are coming from other HCs. This will make much needed addition to the strength of the HC, which had been functioning with depleted strength for a long time. Hopefully, more additions will be made in the months to come,” he said.
