In a breakthrough for the Supreme Court, which had been functioning with nine vacancies of justices, its collegium has recommended nine names for elevation to the apex court.
According to reports, the Supreme Court collegium had been unable to reach a consensus on recommending new names for elevation as former justice Rohinton Nariman had been insisting on elevating Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Tripura High Court Chief Justice Akil Kureshi. These two justices were the senior-most in the all-India seniority list.
Nariman had retired last week. The number of Supreme Court vacancies will rise to 10 on Wednesday, when Justice Navin Sinha retires. If all the nine names are confirmed by the Central government, the Supreme Court would have a total of 33 justices, one short of its strength of 34.
The collegium had not sent any recommendations since the retirement of chief justice Ranjan Gogoi in November 2019.
According to reports, the collegium met on Tuesday. The collegium members were Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justices U.U. Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao.
Bar and Bench reported that Oka is one of the High Court justices recommended for elevation. The list of justices are Karnataka HC Chief Justice Abhay Oka, Gujarat HC Chief Justice Vikram Nath, Sikkim HC Chief Justice J.K. Maheshwari, Telangana HC Chief Justice Hima Kohli, Kerala HC Justice C.T. Ravikumar, Madras HC Justice M.M. Sundaresh, Karnataka HC Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Gujarat HC Justice Bela Trivedi.
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Senior advocate P.S. Narasimha has been recommended for elevation from the bar. If Narasimha is cleared for appointment by the Central government, he would be "the ninth lawyer to be appointed directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court," Bar and Bench reported.
Bar and Bench reported, "Out of the nine, three—Justices Vikram Nath and B.V. Nagarathna and Senior Advocate P.S. Narasimha—will go on to become the chief justice of India." If Nagarathna's elevation is confirmed, she could become India's first woman chief justice in 2027.
"The recommendations will be sent to the Union law ministry that has the option of sending the recommendations back to the collegium for review, but if the collegium resubmits them, it has to approve the names," the Hindustan Times reported.