SC collegium recommends appointment of 13 additional HC judges as permanent judges

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Tuesday recommended appointment of 13 additional judges of three high courts as permanent judges.

The collegium, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, in a meeting held today recommended the names of Justices Boppana Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Chakravarthi and Tallapragada Mallikarjuna Rao for appointment as permanent judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court against two existing vacancies.

Additional Judge Justice Duppala Venkata Ramana's name has been recommended as a permanent judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court against one existing vacancy.

"On February 24, 2023, the collegium of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh unanimously recommended that the three Additional Judges whose names are set out above be appointed as permanent Judges of that High Court. The Chief Minister and the Governor of Andhra Pradesh concurred with the above recommendation.

"A Committee of two judges of the Supreme Court constituted by the Chief Justice of India in terms of the Resolution dated October 26, 2017 of the Supreme Court collegium has assessed the judgments of the above Additional Judges. The Committee has rated the quality of their judgments as 'good'," the collegium said.

In another decision, the collegium has recommended the appointment of 10 additional judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as permanent Judges.

The judges whose names have been recommended are -- Justices Kuldeep Tiwari, Gurbir Singh, Deepak Gupta, Amarjot Bhatti, Ritu Tagore, Manisha Batra, Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, Sukhvinder Kaur, Sanjiv Berry, and Vikram Aggarwal.

"On October 6, 2023, the Collegium of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana unanimously recommended for appointment of the Additional Judges whose names are set out above as permanent Judges of that High Court. The Chief Ministers and the Governors for the States of Punjab and Haryana have not conveyed their views on the above recommendation...

"In terms of the Memorandum of Procedure, the Judges of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana were consulted with a view to ascertain the suitability of the above Additional Judges for being appointed as permanent Judges. They have concurrently opined that all the Additional Judges are fit and suitable for confirmation as permanent Judges," the collegium said.