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SC publishes 9 names shortlisted by collegium for appointments to apex court
The collegium in the Supreme Court comprised CJI NV Ramana, and justices Uday U Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao
New Delhi
The Supreme Court administration on Wednesday evening published the nine names recommended by the collegium for appointment in the apex court.
As reported by HT on Wednesday morning, these nine names include justice BV Nagarathna from the Karnataka high court (HC), who, if elevated now, could become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027. She is the daughter of former CJI Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah, and will become the CJI in September 2027 for little over a month after her appointment.
A one-page statement, published on the Supreme Court website, has listed out the nine names shortlisted by the collegium in the meeting held on Tuesday evening. HT reported the nine names.
Apart from justice Nagarathna, those recommended included justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka (chief justice of Karnataka HC), Vikram Nath (chief justice of Gujarat HC), Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari (chief justice of Sikkim HC), Hima Kohli (chief justice of Telangana HC), CT Ravikumar (judge in Kerala HC), MM Sundresh (judge in Madras HC) and PS Narasimha (senior advocate and former additional solicitor general).
According to people familiar with the development, the Union law ministry is yet to receive files from the Supreme Court on the recommendations. The ministry has the option of sending the recommendations back to the collegium for review, but if the collegium resubmits them, it has to approve the names.
The collegium in the Supreme Court comprised CJI NV Ramana, and justices Uday U Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.
It was the first collegium in the last 21 months when the five most senior judges could arrive at a consensus in forwarding names to the Union government for appointments in the top court.
Since the retirement of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the CJI in November 2019, the collegium had not sent a single recommendation for appointments in the top court, which currently has nine vacancies after justice Rohinton F Nariman’s exit on August 12. Additionally, justice Navin Sinha retired on Wednesday, leaving the Supreme Court with 10 vacancies out of 34. Out of these 10 vacancies, names for nine vacancies have now been recommended by the collegium.
The Supreme Court currently has only one woman judge, justice Indira Banerjee, who is set to retire in September 2022.
Senior advocate Narasimha, if appointed, will be only the ninth lawyer ever to be appointed directly from the bar.
