SC collegium approves judges’ appointments in HCs of Allahabad, Calcutta, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde has approved the proposals for the elevation of 22 judicial officers as judges in High Courts of Allahabad, Calcutta, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.

Besides, two advocates Narendra Kumar Vyas and Aditya Sondhi have also been recommended for elevation as judges of Chhattisgarh and Karnataka High Courts respectively.

In a statement published on its website on Friday, the top court said, the Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on February 4, 2021, has approved the proposal for elevation of the two judicial officers, Karnataka HC's registrar general Rajendra Badamikar, and registrar (vigilance) Khazi Jayabunnisa Mohiuddin as judges of the same high court.

The judicial officers whose names have been recommended as judges of the Allahabad High Court are Mohd Aslam, Anil Kumar Gupta, Anil Kumar Ojha, Sadhna Rani (Thakur), Om Prakash Tripathi, Naveen Srivastava, Umesh Chandra Sharma, Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi, Ajai Tyagi, Syed Waiz Mian, and Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I.

In the context of elevation of judicial officers as judges of Calcutta High Court, the Collegium approved names of Kesang Doma Bhutia, Rabindranath Samanta, Sugato Majumdar, Ananya Bandyopadhyay, Rai Chattopadhyay, Bivas Pattanayak, Subhendu Samanta, and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee.

Besides Chief Justice, Justices N V Ramana and R F Nariman are part of the three-member Collegium which takes a decision in connection with the High Court judges.

Additionally, the Collegium recommended for the elevation of a judicial officer, Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi as judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

The government informed Lok Sabha on Wednesday that as on February 01, 2021, there were four vacancies of judges in the

Supreme Court and 419 vacancies of judges in 25 High Courts. Further, there were 31, 30 and 40 vacancies of judges in the High Courts of Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta respectively.