SC Collegium recommends name of Justice Vinod Chandran for elevation to top court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium on Tuesday recommended for elevation of Justice K Vinod Chandran, Chief Justice of Patna High Court, as a judge of the top court.

In other recommendations, the Collegium recommended for transfer of Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, Justice Alok Aradhe as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. Justice Upadhyay hailed from the Allahabad High Court and Justice Aradhe is from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

On Tuesday, the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and consisting of four senior most judges, unanimously picked up name of Justice Chandran, hailing from the Kerala High Court for elevation, as he has served as a judge of the High Court for more than 11 years and as a Chief Justice of a big high court for more than a year.

In its meeting, the Collegium, also comprising Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy and Abhay S Oka, deliberated and discussed the names of Chief Justices and senior puisne judges of the high courts eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court.

While recommending Justice Chandran's name, the Collegium took into consideration the fact that there is no representation on the bench of the Supreme Court from the High Court of Kerala, a statement said.

Justice Chandran was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court on November 8, 2011 and was elevated as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Patna on March 29, 2023 and has been functioning as the Chief Justice of that high court since then.

During his long tenure as a judge and Chief Justice of the high court, Justice Chandran has acquired significant experience in diverse fields of law, the Collegium said.

Justice Chandran stands at serial number 13 in the combined all-India seniority of high court judges. In the seniority of judges hailing from the High Court of Kerala, he stood at number one.

Notably, Justice C T Ravikumar, who belonged to the Kerala High Court, superannuated on January 5, 2025.

Of total strength of 34 judges, the Supreme Court presently works with 32 judges including the Chief Justice of India.