The Supreme Court collegium has sent to the Centre the names of senior advocate Indu Malhotra and Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Joseph for their appointment as judges of the apex court.
The move by the collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, comes amid an ongoing tussle in the top court which had came into fore after the unprecedented January 12 press conference by four seniormost judges there.
Besides the CJI, the collegium comprises of four seniormost judges of the top court - Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph - who had held the press conference highlighting various issues, including allocation of important and sensitive PILs, and questioned the manner in which the CJI was allocating them.
The collegium had on January 11 approved and decided to recommend the names of Joseph and Malhotra for appointment as apex court judges.
The sources said these two names have now been formally sent to the government.
Malhotra would become the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court, sources said.
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