SC collegium led by CJI Bobde holds scheduled meeting

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde is holding its scheduled meeting on Thursday to discuss possible candidates for appointment of judges in higher judiciary, sources familiar with the development said.

The CJI, who would superannuate on April 23, has been holding the collegium meeting to discuss appointment of judges in the top court and high courts, they said.

The 5-member collegium's pre-scheduled meeting assumes significance in the wake of the fact that President Ram Nath Kovind has formally appointed senior most judge N V Ramana as the next CJI.

As per the convention, since the President has issued warrants of appointment for the next CJI, the outgoing predecessor does not make any recommendations to the Centre for appointment of judges in high courts and the apex court.

The collegium meeting was scheduled before the issuance of the notification appointing Justice Ramana as the CJI.

The last collegium meeting had taken place in the third week of March, the sources said.

Besides the CJI, the four others members to the collegium are justices N V Ramana, R F Nariman, U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar.

The collegium-led by Justice Bobde, who took oath as the CJI on November 18, 2019, has not made any recommendation for appointment of a judge to the apex court so far.

The top court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges and after the retirement of Justice Indu Malhotra recently, the vacancies have gone up to five.