Collegium recommends 3 names for HC chief justices

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended three names for appointment as the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Manipur, and Meghalaya, along with 12 names as judges of different high courts.

The Collegium has recommended Justices Krishna Murari, Ramalingam Sudhakar and M Yaqoob Mir for appointment as the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Manipur, and Meghalaya respectively.

The apex court collegium comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi, which had met on April 19, recommended Justice Murari from Allahabad High Court for the post of Punjab & Haryana High Court Chief Justice.

The recommendations, which were made public today through the Supreme Court website, have named Justice Sudhakar, the senior-most Judge from Madras High Court, for appointment as Chief Justice in Manipur High Court.

For the post of Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court, the collegium recommended the name of Justice Mir, the senior-most Judge from Jammu & Kashmir High Court who has been serving there since his elevation in November 2007.

While recommending these names, the Collegium also considered the shortage in the judges' strength in the high courts. While there is only one judge against a strength of four in the Meghalaya High Court, in the Manipur High Court, there were only two against the total strength of five.

The Collegium also recommended the name of B Sarodjiny Devy, who is presently a judicial officer, as a Judge of the Madras High Court. The names of advocates B Pugalendhi and Chetan S Kapadia to be appointed as Judges of the Madras and Bombay High Court respectively were also recommended.

The names of advocate Parth Prateem Sahu and judicial officers Gautam Chouradia, Vimla Singh Kapoor and Rajani Dubey, have been recommended for appointment as Judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

The Collegium has also recommended the names of judicial officers Dr Ashutosh Pushkerray Thaker, Ajaykumar Chandulal Rao, Vishnukumar Prabhudas Patel, Vireshkumar Bavchandbhai Mayani and Dr Ashutosh Pushkerray Thaker and advocate Umesh Amritlal Trivedi as Judges of the Gujarat High Court.