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Bombay HC CJ recommended for elevation to Supreme Court
The collegium is currently headed by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, and comprises justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, SA Nazeer and KM Joseph
Following hectic parleys, the Supreme Court collegium has recommended Bombay high court chief justice Dipankar Dutta for appointment as a judge to the top court.
According to a resolution available on the court website, Justice Dutta’s name was finalised in the meeting of the collegium held on Monday.
The collegium is currently headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit, and comprises justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, SA Nazeer and KM Joseph — the first five judges in the Supreme Court.
This is the first recommendation by the collegium after justice Lalit took over as the CJI on August 27.
With a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the top court at present has five vacancies. Justice Indira Banerjee was the last judge to demit office on September 23.
People aware of the matter told HT that the collegium agreed on a name for elevation to the top court after back-to-back meetings over the past week. While the collegium members could not reach a consensus in the three meetings that were held last week, justice Dutta turned out to be a unanimous name on Monday.
Some other names for appointment to the apex court were also discussed in the meeting and the collegium may recommend more names during the week, people familiar with the matter said. The collegium further deliberated upon a few names for the appointment as high court chief justices and some of them could be cleared by the collegium soon.
Justice Dutta, 57, was appointed as a judge in the Calcutta high court in June 2006. He was appointed as the chief justice of the Bombay high court in April 2020.
Once the collegium’s recommendation is approved by the Union government, Justice Dutta will have a tenure of eight years in the apex court.
