The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice NV Ramana, has recommended eight names to the Center for appointment to the post of Chief Justices of various High Courts (High Courts) in the country. Among them, Rajesh Bindal, Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court is also named. Reliable sources said that in an intensive meeting of the collegium on Thursday and Friday, recommendations for transfer of five Chief Justices, including Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Akil Qureshi, and 28 other judges of the High Courts were made.
Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Bindal has been in the news recently for his administrative and judicial decisions in matters relating to the political standoff between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. Justice Qureshi, one of the senior-most judges of the country's High Court, was originally elevated as a judge in the Gujarat High Court. And he has been in the news for not being promoted as a judge of the apex court.
Sources said the three-member collegium has decided to recommend the names of judges for promotion as chief justices of the high courts of Allahabad, Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Meghalaya, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. Apart from the Chief Justice, the three-member collegium dealing with appointments to high courts includes Justice U U Lalit and Justice A M Khanwilkar. Justice Rajesh Bindal has been recommended to be transferred as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court. The collegium has also recommended that the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Justice Akil Qureshi be transferred to the Rajasthan High Court.
Sources said that after taking over as the Chief Justice in April this year, Justice Ramana has recommended around 100 names for appointment to various high courts. The 25 High Courts of the country have a sanctioned strength of 1,080 judges and as on May 1, 2021, the High Courts were functioning with only 420 judges. These recommendations have been made by the collegium after the historic decision to recommend 68 names at once for appointment as judges in 12 high courts across the country.
Earlier on August 17, in a landmark judgment, a five-member collegium headed by the Chief Justice had recommended nine names, including three women, for promotion as judges of the Supreme Court. The recommendations assume significance in view of the statement made by the Chief Justice at an event of the Bar Council of India recently that efforts are being made to fill up the issue of vacancies in the higher judiciary "on an urgent basis". The Chief Justice had said during the program that in another month he expects 90 percent of the vacancies to be filled.
“The decision on major reshuffle in the High Courts and appointment of Chief Justices has been taken after intensive meetings. Also said that meetings in this regard were held on Thursday and Friday. The collegium's decisions with regard to the names and details of the judges are yet to be uploaded on the apex court's website.' He said the collegium has recommended the transfer of Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Justice Inderjit Mahanti to Tripura High Court and Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court Justice Vishwanath Somaddar to Sikkim High Court.
Besides Justice Bindal, the collegium has recommended the appointment of Justices Prakash Srivastava, Prashant Kumar Mishra, Ritu Raj Awasthi, Satish Chandra Sharma, Ranjit V More, Arvind Kumar, and R V Malimath as chief justices of different high courts. . He said the names of Justice Prakash Srivastava, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi have been recommended as Chief Justices of the High Courts of Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka respectively. Similarly, the names of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma, Ranjit V More, Arvind Kumar, and R V Malimath have been recommended for appointment as Chief Justices of the High Courts of Telangana, Meghalaya, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
These recommendations have been made by the collegium after the historic decision to recommend 68 names at once for appointment as judges in 12 high courts across the country. Recently, the collegium recommended 10 names to the Center for appointment as permanent judges in the Karnataka High Court.
