NEW DELHI: The collegium on Tuesday recommended the elevation of Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and senior advocate KV Vishwanathan as Supreme Court judges.“The Supreme Court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges and is presently functioning with 32 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 28.
The collegium has, however, unanimously resolved to recommend, for the present, names to fill up the two existing vacancies,” collegium resolution signed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justices SK Kaul, KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi and Sanjiv Khanna stated.
While recommending Justice Mishra’s name, the collegium took note of the fact that there is no representation to Chhattisgarh high court in present composition of SC.“Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra has served as a judge of the high court for over 13 years and ranks at serial number 21 in the All-India seniority list of judges of the high courts. During his tenure of nearly 12 years as a judge of the High Court of Chhattisgarh, he has acquired significant experience in diverse fields of law. Besides, according representation to the State of Chhattisgarh, the appointment of Justice Mishra will provide a value addition in terms of his acquired knowledge and experience. Justice Mishra is a judge with integrity,” the Supreme Court collegium resolution observed.