NEW DELHI: The government has forwarded to the Supreme Court collegium names of 35 candidates for appointment as judges to five high courts, a senior functionary aware of the development has said. The high court collegiums of Madras, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand and Gujarat had sent these names to the Centre.
According to established practice, the high courts send their recommendations to the union law ministry which forwards it to the Supreme court collegium after carrying out background checks with the help of the Intelligence Bureau.
Most of the 35 candidates are from the subordinate judiciary and would be elevated as high court judges if their names are cleared by the SC collegium.
As on July 1, according to the law ministry data, these five high courts have combined vacancies of 97 judges.
At present, the working strength of the 24 high courts is 665, against an approved strength of 1,079 judges.
A record 126 high court judges were appointed in 2016.