NEW DELHI: In a major decision, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana has decided to reiterate eight names for judgeship in several high courts besides recommending 19 fresh names of advocates and judicial officers for appointment as HC judges to the Centre.
The collegium, which also comprised senior most judges Justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar, held deliberations on February 1 and decided to reiterate eight names which were sent to it by the government for reconsideration on various grounds.
Besides, the collegium has recommended 19 fresh names for appointment as high court judges.
While 12 and 6 names judgeships have been recommended for high courts of Telangana and Delhi, one name has been suggested for Patna HC.
The statements, uploaded on the apex court's website, said that names of advocates, Cheppudira Monnappa Poonacha, who was recommended for Karnataka HC, and Khatim Reza and Anshuman Pandey, for judgeship in Patna HC, have been reiterated by the collegium.
"The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 1st February, 2022 has, on reconsideration, resolved to reiterate its earlier recommendation for elevation of the following two Judicial Officers as Judges in the Calcutta High Court: Shampa Dutt (Paul) and Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury," a separate statement said.
Similarly, the collegium resolved to reiterate its earlier recommendation for elevation of the following two Judicial Officers, U S Joshi Phalke and B P Deshpande, as Judges in the Bombay High Court.
"The Supreme Court Collegium, on reconsideration, resolved to reiterate its earlier recommendation for elevation of Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Judicial Officer as Judge in the Jharkhand High Court," another statement said.
Now the Centre, as per the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) on appointments in higher judiciary, is bound to clear the names reiterated by the collegiums for the judgeship.
The collegium has approved the proposal for elevation of five judicial officers and seven advocates as judges of the Telangana High Court.
The judicial officers whose names have been proposed are -- G Anupama Chakravarthy, MG Priyadarshini, Sambasivarao Naidu, A Santosh Reddy and D Nagarjun.
The advocates whose names have been proposed include Kasoju Surendhar, Chada Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Surepalli Nanda, Mummineni Sudheer Kumar, Juvvadi Sridevi, Mirza Safiulla Baig and Natcharaju Shravan Kumar Venkat.
It has recommended the names of six judicial officers, Poonam A Bamba, Neena Bansal Krishna, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, Swarana Kanta Sharma and Sudhir Kumar Jain, for judgeship in Delhi High Court.
There are three women judicial officers whose names have been recommended for judgeship of the Delhi High Court which is functioning with 30 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 60 judges.
Besides, the Collegium approved the proposal for elevation of advocate Rajiv Roy as judge of the Patna High Court.
The decisions were taken by the Collegium at a meeting held on February 1, 2022 and the resolution was uploaded on the apex court website on Wednesday.