SC collegium recommends names for CJs of 7 high courts
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended to the government the names of judges for the appointment of chief justices to seven major high courts across the country—Kerala, Orissa, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Bombay, Telangana, and Gujarat.
The new appointments will fill existing and future vacancies.
The recommended names are Justice Ashish J Desai for Kerala, Justice Subhasis Talapatra for Orissa, Justice Siddharth Mridul for Manipur, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur for Andhra Pradesh, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya for Bombay, Justice Alok Aradhe for Telangana and Justice Sunita Agarwal for Gujarat.
In its recommendations, the collegium, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, has focussed on the traditional criteria of seniority and regional representation, as well as on the need for more women judges at the helm of judiciary.
If her appointment takes place, Justice Agarwal would be “the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court as presently there is no woman among the Chief Justices of the High Courts”, the collegium stated.
If Justice Talapatra’s appointment is accepted by the government, it would be the first time that a judge of the Tripura High Court is elevated as the chief justice of another high court.
The other recommendations are for the elevation of the current CJs of the Kerala HC and Telangana HC, Justice S Venkatanarayana Bhatti and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, respectively, to the Supreme Court.
