The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, has approved a proposal for appointment of 10 additional judges of the Karnataka High Court and two additional judges of the Kerala High Court as permanent judges. According to the statement published on the website of the collegium on September 7, the proposal for the appointment of Justices MR Anitha and K Nair Haripal as judges of the Kerala High Court was approved. Meanwhile, Justice Shivashankar Amarannavar, Justice M Ganeshaiah Uma, Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda, Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar, Justice Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai, and Justice P Krishna Bhat were elevated as permanent judges at the Karnataka High Court.
In a separate statement, the top court collegium also approved the proposal for appointment of following additional judges of the Karnataka High Court as permanent judges — Justice Maralur Indrakumar Arun, Justice Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Indiresh, Justice Ravi Venkappa Hosmani, and Justice Savanur Vishwajith Shetty.
The SC Collegium which also consists of Justices UU Lalit and AM Khanwilkar had on August 25 and September 1 recommended 68 names for appointment as judges in 12 High Courts, including in Allahabad, Rajasthan and Kolkata, that are facing a severe crunch of judges. In yet another first, the collegium nominated Marli Vankung, as the first woman judicial officer from Mizoram whose name has been sent to the Union government for judgeship in the Gauhati High Court, PTI reported. Marli Vankun is also a member of the Scheduled Tribe community, they said, adding that besides her, nine other women candidates have been recommended for judgeship in various High Courts.
In a historic decision on August 17, the five-member Collegium headed by the CJI had recommended nine names for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, including three women. The names were cleared with significant pace by the Union government leading to a historic swearing-in ceremony on August 31 when the new judges were administered oath of office as apex court judges. They included Justices Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Vikram Nath, Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, Hima Kohli, BV Nagarathna, CT Ravikumar, MM Sundresh, Bela M Trivedi and PS Narasimha, who was a senior advocate and former additional solicitor general.