NEW DELHI: Five judges are likely to be elevated to the Supreme Court by the end of October when the apex court will have seven vacancies. At present, the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court is 31 and there are three vacancies.
The five-member collegium of the Supreme Court, which comprises Chief Justice S H Kapadia and four other judges in the order of seniority —Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice R V Raveendran, Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice D K Jain—has reportedly met informally to consider the names for elevation. A formal meeting of the collegium is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Justice Raveendran is retiring on October 14, however. Those proposed to be elevated are all Chief Justices of different High Courts. They are Justice Dipak Misra of Delhi High Court, Justice Chelameswar of Kerala High Court, Justice J S Khehar of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur of Gauhati High Court and Justice Barin Ghosh of Uttarakhand High Court, according to reliable sources.
After the collegium finalises the names, the names will be sent to the Union Law Ministry which will vet the names, an euphemism for a discreet enquiry by the Intelligence Bureau. Later, the file would be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office. If it is satisfied with the bonafides of the names, the file would be finally sent to the President of India for final approval.
The President, after she is satisfied, will issue warrants of appointments for the judges. Then the new judges will take oath and be sworn in. However, official orders for this will take some time as procedural formalities need to be completed.
Justice B Sudershan Reddy retired on July 7, Justice Sirpurkar will be retiring on August 21, Justice H S Bedi on September 4, Justice Markandey Katju on September 10, Justice Mukundakam Sharma on September 17, Justice J M Panchal on October 5 and Justice R V Raveendran on October 14.
Of the five Chief Justices who are proposed to be elevated to the apex court, Justice Misra was enrolled as an advocate in 1977 and practiced in constitutional, civil, criminal, revenue, service and sales tax matters in the Orissa High Court and the Service Tribunal. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court on January 17, 1996 and transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court on March 3, 1997. He became a permanent judge on December 19, 1997. He assumed as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court on December 23, 2009. He took charge as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on May 24, 2010.
