12 additional judges given 3-month extension

Twelve additional judges posted at three high courts were today granted a three-month extension of tenure.
The decision comes a day after the Supreme Court asked the government to draft a new memorandum of procedure to be followed to appoint judges to the high courts and the Supreme Court in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
With no fresh appointments to the higher judiciary expected till the procedure is finalised and put in place, additional judges would continue to be granted brief extensions to overcome shortage of manpower in high courts, Law Ministry officials said today.
As on December 1, the 24 high courts are short of 426 judges. While the sanctioned strength is 1029, the working strength is 603.

Asapu Ramalingeswara Rao has been given a three-month extension with effect from December 21 in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana High Court, a Law Ministry statement said today.
Bulusu Siva Sankara Rao, Mandhata Seetharama Murti, Saripella Ravi Kumar, Upmaka Durga Prasad Rao, Talluri Sunil Chowdary, Mallavolu Satyanarayana Murthy, Misrilal Sunil Kishore Jaiswal, Ambati Shankar Narayana and Mrs Anis have been granted three month extension in the same high court with effect from January 23, 2016.
Dama Seshadri Naidu has been given extension as additional judge in the Kerala High Court for a period of three months with effect from December 21, 2015.

Similarly, Amitav Kumar Gupta will continue as additional judge of the Jharkhand High Court for a period of three months with effect from December 18.