NEW DELHI: After almost four months, the Supreme Court collegium began clearing proposals for the appointment of judges for high courts which are grappling with a 40 per cent shortage of judges. Sources said the collegium is expected to meet again this week to take up appointments for other courts, including the top court.
Since the time lockdown was announced in March, the conventional style physical collegium meetings were stopped along with the personal interaction meetings of the judges with the collegium members, which used to be a routine step before the names get approved for an appointment at high court level. The SC collegium has approved a proposal for elevation of six advocates as judges of the Delhi HC.
The collegium, in its meeting held on August 17, recommended advocates Jasmeet Singh, Amit Bansal, Tara Vitasta Ganju, Anish Dayal, Amit Sharma and Mini Pushkarna, as judges of the high court. Similar proposals were cleared for Allahabad, Gujarat, Kerala and Patna.Though in between March and July, the collegium passed six resolutions through circulation but none of them is related to fresh elevations of lawyers as high court judges.
The sanctioned strength of the apex court is 34 but there are 31 judges, including the CJI, at present. According to the Ministry of Law and Justice, there are 388 vacancies in 25 high courts. According to sources, four names were discussed among the collegium members for appointments to the top court, including that of a woman judge and a lawyer from Madras HC. However, no consensus was reached so far.