Supreme Court Collegium recommendations for the appointment of Additional Judges, Lawyers, and a Judicial Officer as Judges of different High Courts

On March 12, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) Collegium passed various resolutions regarding the appointment of Additional judges, lawyers, and Judicial officers as permanent judges or Additional Judges of different High Courts. The resolutions were passed by the Collegium consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice BR Gavai, and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. In a resolution, the SC Collegium recommended the appointment of eleven Additional Judges of the Bombay High Court as permanent Judges of that HC. The names of Additional Judges recommended to be appointed as permanent judges are mentioned as follows:

• Smt Justice Urmila Sachin Joshi-Phalke,
• Shri Justice Bharat Pandurang Deshpande,
• Shri Justice Kishore Chandrakant Sant,
• Shri Justice Valmiki S A Menezes,
• Shri Justice Kamal Rashmi Khata,
• Smt Justice Sharmila Uttamrao Deshmukh,
• Shri Justice Arun Ramnath Pedneker,
• Shri Justice Sandeep Vishnupant Marne,
• Smt Justice Gauri Vinod Godse,
• Shri Justice Rajesh Shantaram Patil, and
• Shri Justice Arif Saleh Doctor.

The aforementioned names were unanimously recommended by the Collegium of the Bombay High Court on December 14, 2023. The judgments of Additional Judges were assessed by the Committee of two judges of the SC constituted by the CJI. The resolution reads, “With a view to assess the merit and suitability of the above Additional Judges for appointment as permanent Judges, we have scrutinized the material placed on record including the opinion of the consultee-judges and the report of the Judgment Evaluation Committee.” Further, the SC Collegium stated that all eleven Additional Judges of the Bombay HC are fit and suitable for being appointed as permanent judges. In another resolution, the SC recommended the appointment of five Additional judges of the Allahabad High Court as permanent Judges of that HC. The names of Additional Judges recommended to be appointed as permanent judges are as follows:

• Shri Justice Saurabh Srivastava,
• Shri Justice Om Prakash Shukla,
• Shri Justice Mohd. Azhar Husain Idrisi,
• Smt. Justice Jyotsna Sharma, and
• Shri Justice Surendra Singh-I

While recommending their names, the Collegium considered the viewpoint of the Judgment Assessment Committee that assessed the judgments of recommended Additional Judges. It said that “the quality of the judgments are very good/good”. The SC Collegium passed another resolution and recommended the appointment of six advocates as Judges of the Kerala High Court. The Advocates recommended to be appointed as judges of Kerala HC are:

• Shri Abdul Hakhim Mullappally Abdul Aziz,
• Shri Syam Kumar Vadakke Mudavakkat,
• Shri Harisankar Vijayan Menon,
• Shri Manu Sreedharan Nair,
• Shri Easwaran Subramani, and
• Shri Manoj Pulamby Madhavan.

In another resolution dated March 12, 2024, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended the elevation of Judicial Officer Mohammad Yousuf Wani as Additional Judge of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. While recommending his name, the Collegium said, “Nothing adverse has come to notice with regard to his integrity. The Annual Confidential Reports of the officer are consistently of a high order. The consultee-judges have concurrently given a positive opinion about his suitability for appointment as a Judge of the High Court.” Further, the resolution reads, Having regard to the material on record and all relevant factors, the Collegium is of the considered view that Shri Mohammad Yousuf Wani is fit and suitable for being appointed as a Judge of the High Court for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.”