M L Francis appointed permanent judge of Kerala HC

Justice Francis (59) was so far an additional judge of the Kerala High Court. He has served as Principal District Judge at Palakkad, Thrissur and Manjeri. He was sworn in as additional judge in February, 2009.

Nine additional judges have also been appointed to the Bombay High Court, including Pramod Dattaram Kode who was the designated judge of the TADA court which tried 191 accused in the Mumbai bomb blast case in 1993.

The others appointed include Umesh Dattatraya Salvi, Shrihari Purushottam Davare, Anil Ramchandra Joshi, Mridula Ramesh Bhatkar, Anand Vasantrao Potdar, Filomeno Manuel Lopo Sales Rosario Dos Reis, Rajesh Govind Ketkar, and Ravi Krishnaro Deshpande.

While the Bombay High Court has an approved strength of 75 judges - both additional and permanent, it is functioning on a working strength of 56 judges. With the appointment of nine new additional judges, the shortfall will drop from 19 to ten.