The Supreme Court Collegium has approved the proposal for elevation of six judicial officers as judges of the Telangana High Court. The Collegium headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana in a meeting held on August 17, 2021 okayed the proposal and the statement was uploaded on the apex court website on Wednesday. The judges who have been elevated are P Sree Sudha, C Sumalatha, G Radha Rani, M Laxman, N Tukaramji, and A Venkateshwara Reddy. Besides them, the Collegium has also approved the proposal for elevation of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) judicial member P Madhavi Dev as judge of the Telangana High Court.
The names of six judicial officers who are now elevated were sent to the Supreme Court two years ago by the Telangana High Court collegium, recommending to appoint them as judges of the High Court under judicial quota. According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, Justice Sree Sudha is presently presiding over the co-operative tribunal and was a district judge of Nizamabad in 2002. She also rendered services as the Director of the Judicial Academy in united Andhra Pradesh. While Justice C Sumalatha is Chief Judge at the City Civil Court in Hyderabad, Justice G Radha Rani is presently the principal judge of Ranga Reddy district courts.
M Laxman is presently the presiding officer of the Labour Court in Hyderabad and N Tukaram is a Hyderabad metropolitan courts sessions judge. Venkateshwar Reddy is presently registrar general of the Telangana High Court and Madhavi Devi is presently a judicial member in ITAT, and practiced as an advocate at the High Court. Besides Ramana, Justices UU Lalit and A M Khanwilkar are part of the three-member Collegium which takes decisions with regard to the High Court judges.
On the other hand, reports have also claimed that Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has ordered a “discreet” inquiry into confidential information relating to the Supreme Court collegium coming into the media, a report in The Telegraph said. The CJI had earlier said that he was deeply “upset, anguished” over the speculation by the media.
(With PTI Inputs)