SC Collegium recommends the appointment of 3 Delhi HC and 7 Bombay HC additional judges as permanent judges
On July 09, 2024 (Tuesday), the Supreme Court (SC) Collegium passed three resolutions. The SC Collegium recommended the appointment of 3 Additional Judges of the Delhi High Court and 7 Additional Judges of the Bombay High Court as Permanent Judges of the Delhi HC and Bombay HC respectively. Also, the Collegium recommended the appointment of two other judges as the Additional Judges of the Bombay HC for a fresh term of 1 year with effect from October 07, 2024. The resolutions were passed by the SC Collegium bench constituting Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice BR Gavai, and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. The names of Additional Judges of the Delhi HC recommended by the Collegium for appointment as Permanent Judges include:
- Shri Justice Girish Kathpalia,
- Shri Justice Manoj Jain, and
- Shri Justice Dharmesh Sharma
While recommending their names, the SC Collegium relied upon the evaluation done by the members of the Committee, made by the Collegium, that assessed the judgments of the aforementioned additional judges. The Committee rated the quality of judgments as “Good’. Therefore, the SC Collegium said, “On an overall consideration of the above proposal, the Collegium is of the view that S/Shri Justices (i) Girish Kathpalia, (ii) Manoj Jain, and (iii) Dharmesh Sharma, Additional Judges are fit and suitable for being appointed as permanent Judges.” The Collegium resolved to recommend them as permanent judges of the Delhi HC against the existing vacancies. In another resolution, the names of Additional Judges of the Bombay HC recommended by the Collegium for appointment as Permanent Judges include:
- Shri Justice Yanshivraj Gopichand Khobragade,
- Shri Justice Mahendra Wadhumal Chandwani,
- Shri Justice Abhay Sopanrao Waghwase, and
- Shri Justice Ravindra Madhusudan Joshi
Along with this, the Collegium also recommended the names of judges to be appointed as Additional Judges of the HC for a fresh term of 1 year with effect from October 07, 2024.
- Shri Justice Sanjay Anandrao Deshmukh and
- Smt. Justice Vrushali Vijay Joshi
The Collegium, in a separate resolution, recommended the following names of Additional judges of the Bombay HC to be appointed as Permanent Judges:
- Shri Justice Santosh Govindrao Chapalgaonkar,
- Shri Justice Milind Manohar Sathaye, and
- Dr (Smt) Justice Neela Kedar Gokhale
The Committee assessed the judgments of Additional judges and rated them as ‘upto the mark’. Therefore, it found that the mentioned names of the Additional judges of the Bombay HC “are fit and suitable for being appointed as permanent judges”. Furthermore, the SC Collegium appointed the aforementioned 7 Bombay HC Additional judges as permanent judges.
