Collegium sends 9 names to govt for SC elevation
CJI laments speculation in media
The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the names of four chief justices of high courts, four high court judges and a practising senior lawyer of the Supreme Court for elevation as judges of the top court.
The collegium has recommended the elevation of the Chief Justice of the Karnataka high court, Justice A.S. Oka, the chief justice of the Gujarat high court, Justice Vikram Nath, the chief justice of the Sikkim high court, Justice J.K. Maheshwari, and the chief justice of the Telangana high court, Justice Hima Kohli.
Besides this, the collegium has recommended the names of Justices B.V. Nagarathna, C.T.
Ravikumar, M.M. Sundresh and Bela M. Trivedi — who are judges of the Karnataka, Kerala, Madras and Gujarat high courts respectively.
The obvious casualty is the chief justice of the Tripura high court, Justice Akil Kureshi.
Justice B.V. Nagarathna, if her name is cleared by the government, will go on to become the first woman Chief Justice of India, though for a brief period.
Incumbent Chief Justice N.V. Ramana will be succeeded by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit (tenure from August 2022 to November 2022), Justice D.Y. Chandrachud (from November 2022 to November 2024), Justice Sanjiv Khanna (from November 2024 to May 2025), Justice B.R. Gavai
(from May 2025 to November 2025), Justice Surya Kant (from November 2025 to February 2027), Justice Vikram Nath (from February 2027 to September 2027) and Justice B.V. Nagarathna (from September 2027 to October 2027).
If all the names that have been recommended by the collegium are cleared by the government, the top court will have four women judges. At present it has just a single woman judge, Justice Indira Banerjee. The other three judges will be Justices Hima Kohli, B.V. Nagarathna and Bela M. Trivedi.
The collegium has also recommended the appointment of senior lawyer P.S. Narasimha as a Supreme Court judge. The recommendation of Mr Narasimha for appointment as a judge is a continuation of the initiative taken by former Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, who had recommended the names of then senior lawyers Gopal Subramanium, L. Nageswara Rao, Rohinton Fali Nariman and Uday Umesh Lalit for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, Chief Justice N.V. Ramana expressed “anguish” over “speculative” reports in a section of the media about the collegium’s recommendations.
Venting displeasure at the “speculative” media reports, CJI Ramana said: “Today’s reflections in some sections of the media, pending the process, even before formalising the resolution is counter-productive. There are instances of deserving career progression of bright talents getting marred because of such irresponsible reporting and speculation. This is very unfortunate, and I am extremely upset about it.”
The CJI’s disapproval of the reports in a section of the media on the collegium’s recommendations came in open court as he was presiding over a ceremonial bench on the last working day of Justice Navin Sinha in the court.
Describing the process of judicial appointments as a sacrosanct function of the collegium, the Chief Justice asked the media to refrain from denting the integrity and dignity of the process by resorting to speculation.