Collegium clears 4 HC chief justices for elevation to SC

NEW DELHI: Ten days after President promulgated an ordinance to increase the Supreme Court judge strength to 38, the SC collegium led by CJI Surya Kant on Wednesday recommended the Union govt to appoint four HC chief justices - Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli - and senior advocate V Mohana as judges of the SC.On appointment, Mohana will become the second woman, after Justice Indu Malhotra, to be directly appointed from the bar as judge of the SC. The recommendations were finalised after a stormy preliminary discussion on May 22, which went on at CJI's residence till well beyond midnight.However, the names were finalised on Wednesday by the collegium comprising CJI Kant, and Justices Vikram Nath, J K Maheshwari, B V Nagarathna and M M Sundresh after eliminating the names over which there was major difference of opinions.

On appointment of these five as judges, the SC's working strength will increase from 32 at present to 37, leaving just one vacancy.Punjab and Haryana HC chief justice Nagu was part of the three-member in-house inquiry committee set up by then CJI Sanjiv Khanna to inquire into the discovery of huge amounts of cash in half burnt state at the residence of then Delhi HC judge Yashwant Varma in March last year. Justice Varma has since resigned as a judge of Allahabad HC.

Justice Nagu was appointed as a judge of MP HC in May 2011 and then as CJ of Punjab and Haryana HC on July 9, 2024. As an SC judge, he would have a three-and- a-half year tenure and is scheduled to retire on Dec 31, 2029.Mohana is a first generation lawyer and became an advocate on record in 1996. She was designated as senior advocate by the SC in Apr 2015. Hailing from Coimbatore, she practiced law for over 37 years after obtaining her law degree in 1988.Bombay HC Chief Justice Chandrashekhar will have a tenure of less than four years in the SC and will retire on May 24, 2030. He was part of the Lok Sabha Speaker appointed Judges Inquiry Committee that was investigating the alleged misconduct of Justice Yashwant Varma. MP HC Chief Justice Sachdeva on appointment to the SC will have a tenure of three and half years. J&K and Ladakh HC Chief Justice Palli will have a tenure of three years and four months on appointment as SC judge.