The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended 16 more names for promotion as judges of four high courts.
The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, approved the names of six judicial officers and 10 advocates as judges of the Bombay, Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab and Haryana High Courts in a meeting held on Wednesday.
For the Bombay HC, it recommended the promotion of judicial officers AL Pansare, SC More, US Joshi-Phalke and BP Deshpande.
Six advocates have been approved for promotion in the Gujarat High Court: Mauna Manish Bhatt, Sameer J Dave, Hemant M Prachhak, Sandeep N Bhatt, Anirudh Pradyumna Mai, Niral Rashmikant Mehta and Nisha Mahendrabhai Thakor.
The judicial officers recommended for the Orissa HC are Radha Krishna Patnaik and Shashikant Mishra and advocates Aditya Kumar Mohapatra and Mriganka Shekhar Sahu.
The collegium also approved the proposal to elevate advocate Sandeep Moudgil as a judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
With this, the number of judges recommended by the collegium in various high courts has increased to 118 since August.
According to the Justice Department, there are a total of 465 vacancies in the country’s 25 high courts – 281 vacancies for permanent judges and 184 for additional judges, against the sanctioned strength of 1,098 as of September 1, 2021. Allahabad HC has 68 vacancies, Punjab & Haryana HC 40, and Calcutta HC 36 vacancies.
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