NEW DELHI: Pursuant to the retirement of SC judges Dinesh Maheshwari and MR Shah, the Supreme Court collegium on Tuesday recommended the elevation of Andhra Pradesh HC chief justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and senior advocate KV Vishwanathan as SC judges.
“The Supreme Court of India has a sanctioned strength of thirty-four Judges and is presently functioning with thirty-two judges. Thus, there are two clear vacancies. With four more vacancies, which are going to arise by the second week of July, the working strength of judges would come to twenty-eight.
The collegium has, however, unanimously resolved to recommend, for the present, names to fill up the two existing vacancies,” collegium resolution signed by CJI DY Chandrachud, justices SK Kaul, KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna stated.
Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan’s name has been recommended considering that there is only one member from the bar (justice PS Narasimha), who has been directly appointed to SC, and his appointment would enhance the representation of bar in SCs composition. If appointed, senior advocate Vishwanathan, pursuant to the retirement of Justice JB Pardiwala as CJI on August 11, 2030, would be in line to be at the SCs helm till May 25, 2031.
“Viswanathan has appeared in a range of cases including Constitutional law, criminal law, commercial law, the law of Insolvency, and Arbitration. His stature as an eminent member of the Bar has been recognised by the Supreme Court in numerous cases where he was appointed to assist the Court as amicus curiae,” the resolution stated.