Judges' Appointment

'Transfer meant to harass me': MP HC Justice DV Ramana in farewell speech

Justice Ramana claimed he had submitted representations twice to the Supreme Court Collegium requesting a transfer, citing his wife's medical condition, but received no response

PIL highlights shortage of judges in Delhi HC, urges filling vacancies

A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court, highlighting a shortage of judges and urging for expeditiously filling up the vacancies by elevating eligible district judges and advocates from the bar. The public interest litigation (PIL) matter is likely to come up for hearing next week before a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. The Delhi High Court has a sanctioned strength of 60 judges but is working with 36 judges currently. In his plea, petitioner and advocate Amit Sahni has sought an urgent judicial intervention regarding the "alarming and chronic shortage" of judges in the court, which has "adversely impacted the timely dispensation of justice and the functioning of the judiciary". Sahni, a lawyer, has pointed out in his plea that according to the sanctioned strength, the court should have 60 judges -- 45 permanent and 15 additional. "However, it is currently functioning with only 36 judges, reflecting a vacancy rate of 40 per cent. This seri

SC puts assets, appointment process of judges in public for transparency

In a bid to enhance transparency, the Supreme Court on Monday said it has uploaded statements of assets of judges on its website, in accordance with a full-court decision to place the relevant details in the public domain. "The full court of the Supreme Court of India has on April 1, 2025 decided that the statements of assets of the judges of this court shall be placed in the public domain by uploading the same on the website of this court. Statements of assets of judges already received are being uploaded. Statements of assets of other judges will be uploaded as and when the current statement of assets is received," a release issued by the court said. The top court has also placed the complete process of appointments to the high courts and the Supreme Court, including the role assigned to the High Court Collegium, the role of and inputs received from the state governments, Union of India and consideration by the Supreme Court Collegium, on its website for the knowledge and awareness

Govt remains silent on question of reintroducing law on judges' appointment

The government on Thursday maintained silence on whether it will consider bringing again the National Judicial Appointments Commission bill to overturn the present collegium system to appoint judges. Responding to a question on the government's "view" relating to the National Judicial Appointments Committee (NJAC) and whether it would "again consider" bringing in the NJAC legislation, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal gave a detailed response on what the now struck down law sought to do. But he was silent on whether the government will consider bringing the NJAC bill. In a written response in Rajya Sabha, he said to replace the Collegium system of appointments of judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts with a "more broad-based, transparent, accountable appointment mechanism" and to bring greater objectivity in the system, the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 were brought. These laws came into force on ..

'We are not a trash bin': Allahabad bar slams Justice Varma's transfer

The Supreme Court Collegium decided to transfer Justice Yashwant Verma back to Allahabad High Court after hoards of cash were recovered in his New Delhi home

Corruption in judiciary: Sibal seeks 'transparency' in judges' appointment

Senior Supreme court advocate was also critical of the Allahabad High Court's observation that had said "Holding breast, breaking pyjama's string is not a crime of rape"

Ex-CJI advocates for national system to hire judges, fill vacancies

Former CJI DY Chandrachud advocates for All-India Judicial Service that would include a common national exam to recruit judges similar to those conducted for IAS and IPS

Newsmaker: Meet Justice Ranjana Desai, head of Gujarat panel on UCC

The retired Supreme Court judge, on the basis of whose report the Uniform Civil Code came into being in Uttarakhand, will draft a similar law for Gujarat

SC collegium approves appointment of five additional judges as permanent

The Supreme Court collegium on Wednesday approved the proposal for appointment of five additional judges of the high courts of Madras and Telangana as permanent judges. The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, held its meeting on Wednesday. "The Supreme Court collegium in its meeting held on February 5, 2025 has approved the proposal for appointment of the following additional judges as permanent judges in the Madras High Court -- Justice Venkatachari Lakshminarayanan and Justice Periyasamy Vadamalai," read the collegium statement. Another statement said the collegium had approved the proposal for appointment of additional judges -- Justice Laxmi Narayana Alishetty, Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti and Justice Sujana Kalasikam -- as permanent judges in the Telangana High Court.

Govt says no plans for law requiring SC, HC judges to disclose assets

The government on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that it had no plans to bring a law mandating Supreme Court and high court judges to furnish their property returns, as recommended by a parliamentary committee. In a written reply, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal also said that details of the declaration of assets by the judges of high courts and the Supreme Court were not centrally maintained. The minister replied in the negative to a sub-question on "whether the government is contemplating to enact a law mandating judges of the higher judiciary to furnish their property returns as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report titled 'Judicial Processes and their Reform' of August, 2023". At the same time, the minister said the "Restatement of Values of Judicial Life", adopted by a "full court" meeting of the Supreme Court on May 7, 1997, laid down certain judicial standards to be followed by the Supreme Court and high court judges. The full bench on August

21% posts vacant in district courts, Govt needs to invest more: Ex-CJI

He also pointed out that this will require a constitutional amendment because, the recruitment and conditions of service of the judges to the district judiciary are, controlled by the governors

India may look to curb judges' arbitrary sentences for criminals

The pace of the trial and questions about the legal defence given to the accused fuelled concern among some rights advocates

SC appoints new judge: Who is Justice Prasanna Bhalachandra Varale?

Justice Varale, who is currently the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday

SC collegium recommends K'taka HC CJ Varale's elevation as top court judge

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Friday recommended the elevation of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale as a top court judge. In a meeting held on Friday, the collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, took into consideration the fact that he is among the senior-most High Court judges and is the only HC chief justice from the Scheduled Caste. "We are also conscious of the fact that at present, there are three Judges from the High Court of Bombay on the Bench of the Supreme Court. The Collegium, therefore, unanimously resolves to recommend that Mr Justice Prasanna B Varale be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India," the collegium said. The collegium took note of the vacancy that arose on the retirement of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on December 25, 2023. "Bearing in mind that the workload of judges has increased considerably, it has become necessary to ensure that the

SC collegium recommends five names to Centre for judgeship in four HCs

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has recommended five names to the Centre for appointment as additional judges in four high courts. The collegiums, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, also recommended the names of additional judges -- justices Rahul Bharti and Moksha Khajuria Kazmi, both from the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, for appointment as permanent judges. One of the recommendations said additional judge Justice Abhay Ahuja be also considered for appointment as permanent judge in the Bombay High Court. Several collegiums resolutions, uploaded Thursday night on apex court website, provided details of the deliberations leading to recommendations of names of judicial officers and advocates for judgeship in high courts. The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the name of Smt. Chaitali Chatterjee (Das), Judicial Officer, for appointment as Judge of the High Court at Calcutta in the following terms..., one of the .

HC collegiums yet to send recommendations for 201 judges' vacancies: Govt

Eighty-one of the 123 proposals sent by high court collegiums for appointment of judges are at various stages of processing with the government, Parliament was informed on Friday. The remaining 42 proposals are under the consideration of the Supreme Court Collegium, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. He also said recommendations are yet to be received from the high court collegiums regarding the remaining 201 vacancies. "As on December 12, 123 proposals are at various stages of processing. Out of these 123 proposals, 81 proposals are at various stages of processing in the government. Forty-two proposals are under consideration with the SC collegium," Meghwal said. According to the law ministry's website, as on December 1, of the sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges for the 25 high courts, there were 324 vacancies. According to the established mechanism, the chief justice of a high court initiates a proposal to fill vacancies of ..

Ministry of Law and Justice notifies transfer of several high court judges

Recently, the collegium has recommended the transfer of several judges from High Courts across the country despite requests from several of them to reconsider its decision

Centre cannot 'pick and choose' names from collegium resolutions: SC

The bench noted in its order that 14 first-time recommendations and five reiterated recommendations are currently pending with the Centre

SC to hear pleas on delay in approving collegium recommendations on Oct 9

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday two petitions including the one alleging delay by the Centre in clearing the names recommended by the collegium for appointment and transfer of judges. The appointment of judges through the collegium system has in the past become a major flashpoint between the Supreme Court and the Centre with the mechanism drawing criticism from different quarters. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia is scheduled to hear the pleas on October 9. While hearing the matter on September 26, the apex court had voiced dismay over the "delay" in the appointment of judges and asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to use his office to resolve the issue. "There were 80 recommendations pending until last week when 10 names were cleared. Now, the figure is 70, of which 26 recommendations are of transfer of judges, seven are reiterations, nine are pending without being returned to the collegium and one case is of appointment of the Chief

JKPSC civil judge registration deadline extended till September 19

JKPSC extended its last date to apply for the Civil Judge (Junior Division) post to September 19. Applicants can apply at jkpsc.nic.in for 69 vacancies available