NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of a historic decision to recommend 68 names in one go for the judgeship in 12 high courts, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana has recommended 10 names to the Centre for appointment as permanent judges in the Karnataka High Court.
In the meeting held on September 7, the three-member collegium, also comprising Justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar, also approved the proposal of the Kerala High Court collegium to appoint two additional judges, Justice M R Anitha and Mr Justice K Nair Haripal, as permanent judges.
The apex court has issued three separate statements regarding the recommendations made to the Centre by the collegium on September 7.
Ten Additional judges of the Karnataka High Court would now become permanent judges if the proposal is accepted by the government.
They are: Justices Shivashankar Amarannavar, M Ganeshaiah Uma, Vedavyasachar Srishananda, Hanchate Sanjeevkumar, Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai, P Krishna Bhat, Maralur Indrakumar Arun, Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Indiresh, Ravi Venkappa Hosmani and Savanur Vishwajith Shetty.
These recommendations assume significance in view of the statement made by the CJI in a recent function of the Bar Council of India that it has been his endeavour to address the issue of vacancies in the higher judiciary on an "urgent basis".
Referring to nine appointments in one go in the apex court bench, Justice Ramana had said, "Similarly, after I took over, the Collegium has recommended, if I am not wrong, 82 names to various high courts.
"I hope the government will ensure that the names are cleared at the earliest just the way the nine names were cleared for the apex court. It is an ongoing process. We hope to live up to the herculean challenge of filling nearly 41 per cent of vacancies existing in all the high courts," he had said, adding that in another month, he expected that 90 per cent of vacancies will be filled.
Significantly, the collegium, on September 1, had taken an unprecedented decision by recommending as many as 68 names in one go for appointment as judges in 12 high courts, including in Allahabad, Rajasthan and Calcutta, that are facing a severe crunch of judges.
The collegium, in its meetings, held on August 25 and September 1, had considered as many as 112 candidates for elevation as judges in high courts.
Among those 68 cleared for twelve high courts, 44 were from the Bar and 24 were from the judicial service.
Sixty-eight judges, if cleared by the Centre, will be appointed in high courts at Allahabad, Rajasthan, Calcutta, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Assam.
The 25 high courts of the country have a combined sanctioned strength of 1,080 judges. The high courts, as on May 1, 2021, were functioning with 420 judges and the recommendations, if accepted by the Centre, would considerably raise the working strength.
Prior to this, in a historic decision on August 17, the five-member Collegium headed by the CJI had recommended nine names for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, including three women.
The names were cleared with significant pace by the Centre leading to a historic swearing-in ceremony on August 31 when the new judges were administered oath of office as apex court judges.
They included Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath, Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Hima Kohli and B V Nagarathna.
Besides, the CJI also administered oath of office to Justices C T Ravikumar, M M Sundresh, Bela M Trivedi and P S Narasimha, who was a senior advocate and former additional solicitor general.