SC collegium recommends elevation of four judges to top court

The Supreme court collegium is understood to have recommended the elevation of the Chief Justices of Patna, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tripura high courts as judges of the Supreme Court.

The four Chief Justices who have been recommended for elevation to the top court include Justice M.R. Shah, Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Justice R.S. Reddy, Chief Justice of Gujarat High court, Justice Hemant Gupta, chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, and Justice Ajay Rastogi, Chief Justice of Tripura High Court.

The Gujarat High Court is the parent High Court for Justice Shah which is unrepresented in the Supreme Court. Similarly Justice Reddy hails from Andhra Pradesh High Court but belongs to Telangana which is not represented in the top court.

Though for the top court judge Justice N.V. Ramana, Andhra Pradesh High court is the parent High Court, he belongs to Andhra Pradesh.

Similarly Justice Ajay Rastogi belongs to Rajasthan and hails from Rajasthan High Court which, too, is unrepresented in the Supreme Court.

Justice Hemant Gupta belongs to Punjab and Haryana High Court.

If the recommended elevation of all the four judges gets cleared, then the strength of top court will increase to 28 judges. The top court has a sanctioned strength of 31 judges.

However, it may again come down to 25 as sitting judges of Supreme Court, Justice Kurian Joseph is retiring in November, Justice Madan B. Lokur is retiring in December and Justice A.K.Sikri is retiring in March next year.

--IANS

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